And how, though then he had no head, He afterwards had two; Which both work'd miracles so well, That it was not possible to tell And how he used to fight the Moors But in their cause of latter years 3 For that he never struck a stroke is plain, When our Duke, in many a hard campaign, Beat the French armies out of Spain, And conquer'd Buonaparte. *Whereby, my little friends, we see Which picture-buyers won't believe, Young Connoisseurs who will be! And not to interrupt The order of narration, This warning shall be printed By way of annotation. Yet still they worship him in Spain, And believe in him with might and main: Santiago there they call him; And if any one there should doubt these tales, They've an Inquisition to maul him. At Compostella in his Church Have been for some eight hundred years Old scores might there be clean rubb'd off, To clear all toll gates on the way Some went for payment of a vow And some who found that pilgrimage And some, I trow, because it was That all, who in their mortal stage Some upon penance for their sins, And some who were, or had been sick; And some who thought to cheat Old Nick; And some who liked the journey: Which well they might when ways were safe; As folks now make a tour. The poor with scrip, the rich with purse, They took their chance for better for worse, From many a foreign land, With a scallop-shell in the hat for badge, Something there is, the which to leave For the scallop shows in a coat of arms, Some one, in former days, hath been And the staff was bored and drilled for those And thus the merry Pilgrim had THE LEGEND. PART I. ONCE on a time three Pilgrims true, Their names, little friends, I am sorry to say, But the son, if you please, we'll call Pierre, From France they came, in which fair land And they took up their lodging one night on the way Now, if poor Pilgrims they had been, And had lodged in the Hospice instead of the Inn, Why then you never would have heard, For the Innkeepers they had a daughter, Sad to say, who was just such another, As Potiphar's daughter, I think, would have been If she follow'd the ways of her mother. This wicked woman to our Pierre And, because she fail'd to win his love, So she pack'd up a silver cup And then, as soon as they were gone, The Pilgrims were overtaken, The people gather'd round, Their wallets were search'd, and in Pierre's They dragg'd him before the Alcayde ; "The theft," he said, "was plain and proved, And hang'd the thief must be." So to the gallows our poor Pierre |