And wente to here lotebi.

Chaucer uses the word (in the romance of the Rose, l. 6339), in a passage rather similar to this of Piers Ploughman:—

Now am I yong and stout and bolde,

Now am I Robert, now Robin,

Now frere Minor now Jacobin,

And with me followeth my loteby,

To don me solace and company.

In the original the word is compaigne

lotien (A.S.) [354], to lurk, lie in ambush

louke (A.S.) [384], to lock