Therein also were wild beasts, and beasts serpentine, and
she feared that if she entered there they would slay her. But anon she
deemed that if men found her there they would hale her back into the town
to burn her.
_Here one singeth_:
Nicolete, the fair of face,
Climbed upon the coping stone,
There made she lament and moan
Calling on our Lord alone
For his mercy and his grace.
"Father, king of Majesty,
Listen, for I nothing know
Where to flee or whither go.
If within the wood I fare,
Lo, the wolves will slay me there,
Boars and lions terrible,
Many in the wild wood dwell,
But if I abide the day,
Surely worse will come of it,
Surely will the fire be lit
That shall burn my body away,
Jesus, lord of Majesty,
Better seemeth it to me,
That within the wood I fare,
Though the wolves devour me there
Than within the town to go,
Ne'er be it so!"
Then speak they, say they, tell they the Tale:
Nicolete made great moan, as ye have heard; then commended she herself to
God, and anon fared till she came unto the forest. But to go deep in it
she dared not, by reason of the wild beasts, and beasts serpentine. Anon
crept she into a little thicket, where sleep came upon her, and she slept
till prime next day, when the shepherds issued forth from the town and
drove their bestial between wood and water.
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