that the theeves were gone that way to fetch the residue of their
pillage) resisted with my head as much as I might, saying within my
selfe: What wilt thou doe unhappy maiden? Why wouldst thou goe so
willingly to hell? Why wilt thou runne into destruction by meane of my
feet? Why dost thou seek thine own harme, and mine likewise? And while
we strived together whether way we might take, the theeves returned,
laiden with their pray, and perceived us a farre off by the light of the
Moon: and after they had known us, one of them gan say, Whither goe you
so hastely? Be you not afraid of spirits? And you (you harlot) doe you
not goe to see your parents? Come on, we will beare you company? And
therewithall they tooke me by the hatter, and drave me backe againe,
beating me cruelly with a great staffe (that they had) full of knobs:
then I returning againe to my ready destruction, and remembering the
griefe of my hoofe, began to shake my head, and to waxe lame, but he
that led me by the halter said, What, dost thou stumble? Canst thou not
goe? These rotten feet of thine ran well enough, but they cannot walke:
thou couldest mince it finely even now with the gentlewoman, that thou
seemedst to passe the horse Pegasus in swiftnesse. In saying of these
words they beat mee againe, that they broke a great staffe upon mee. And
when we were come almost home, we saw the old woman hanging upon a bow
of a Cipresse tree; then one of them cut downe the bowe whereon shee
hanged, and cast her into the bottome of a great ditch: after this
they bound the maiden and fell greedily to their victuals, which the
miserable old woman had prepared for them. At which time they began to
devise with themselves of our death, and how they might be revenged;
divers was the opinions of this divers number: the first said, that hee
thought best the Mayd should be burned alive: the second said she should
be throwne out to wild beasts: the third said, she should be hanged upon
a gibbet: the fourth said she should be flead alive: thus was the death
of the poore Maiden scanned betweene them foure. But one of the theeves