oghtyr

the matinslearing theed them too hear ther, and con-r incensed,;ron of the

the handsone could

s of Ramsey,1 Place.

The Dance of Death. 9

The preste yede 22 yn whan thys was done,And comaunded hys sone Azone,That shuld go swythe'after Ave,Oute of that karolle algate to have ;But al to late that wurde was sayde,For on hem alle was the venjeaunce leycLAzonde wende weyl for to spedeUnto the karolle asswythe he yede ;Hys syster by the arme he hente,And the arme fro the body wente ;Men wundred alle that there wore,And merveyle nowe ye here more ;For seythen he had the arme yn hand,The body yode furth karoland,And nother body ne the armeBled never blode colde ne warme ;But was as drye with al the haunche,As of a stok were ryve a braunche.

Azone carries his sister's arm to the priest his father, andtells him the consequences of his rash curse. The priest,after much lamentation, buries the arm. The next morningit rises out of the grave; he buries it again, and again itrises. He buries it a third time, when it is cast out of thegrave with considerable violence. He then carries it intothe church that all might behold it. In the meantime theparty continued dancing and singing, without taking anyfood or sleeping, " only a lepy wynke ;" nor were they inthe least affected by the weather. Their hair and nailsceased to grow, and their garments were neither soiled nordiscoloured ; but

Sunge that songge that the wo wrozt," Why stond we, why go we nozt."

To see this curious and woful sight, the emperor travelsfrom Rome, and orders his carpenters and other artificersto enclose them in a building ; but this could not be done,for what was set up one day fell down on the next, and nocovering could be made to protect the sinners till the timeof mercy that Christ had appointed had arrived; when, atthe expiration of the twelvemonth, and in the very samehour in which the priest had pronounced his curse uponthem, they were separated, and " in the twynklyng of aneye " ran into the church and fell down in a swoon on thepavement, where they lay three days before they were22 Went