In orisons / with many a bitter teere
Til Ihesu / hath conuerted / thurgh his grace
Dame Hermengyld / Constablesse of that place
Line 539
In al that lond / no cristen dorste route
Alle cristen folk / been fled fro that contree
Thurgh Payens / that conquereden al aboute
The plages of the North by land and see
Line 543
To Walys / fledde the Cristyanytee
Of olde Britons / dwellynge in this Ile
Ther was hir refut for the meene while
Line 546
But yet nere cristene Britons so exiled
That ther nere somme / that in hir priuetee
Honoured crist and hethen folk bigiled
And ny the Castel / swiche ther dwelten three
Line 550
That oon of hem was blynd / and myghte nat see
But it were / with thilke eyen of his mynde
With whiche men seen / whan þat they ben blynde
Line 553
Bright was the sonne / as in that someres day
ffor which the Constable / and his wyf also
And Custance / han ytake the righte way
Toward the see / a furlong wey or two
Line 557
To pleyen / and to romen to romen [[so]] to and fro
And in hir walk this blynde man they mette
Croked and oold / with eyen faste yshette
Line 560
In name of Crist cride this olde Briton
Dame Hermengyld / yif me / my sighte agayn
This lady / weex affrayed of the soun
Lest that hir housbonde / shortly for to sayn
Line 564
Wolde hire / for Ihesu cristes loue han slayn
Til Custance made hire boold / and bad hire wirche
The wyl of Crist as doghter of his chirche
Line 567
