Walls and houses fell the seigh,
    A church, with steeple fair and high;
    Then was there nother street no town,
    But an house of religion;
    An order of nuns, well y-dight,
    To servy God both day and night. 
    The maiden abode no lengore;[45]
    But yede her to the church door,
    And on her knees she sate her down,
    And said, weepand, her orisones. 
      “O Lord,” she said, “Jesus Christ,
    That sinful mannes bedes,[46]
    Underfong[47] this present,
    And help this seli innocent! 
    That it mote y-christen’d be,
    For Marie love, thy mother free!”
      She looked up, and by her seigh
    An asche, by her, fair and high,
    Well y-boughed, of mickle price;
    The body was hollow, as many one is. 
    Therin she laid the child for cold,
    In the pel,[48] as it was, byfold[49]
    And blessed it with all her might. 
    With that it gan to dowe light. 
    The fowles up, and sung on bough,
    And acre-men yede to the plough,
    The maiden turned again anon,
    And took the way she had ere gon. 
      The porter of the abbey arose,
    And did his office in the close;
    Rung the bells and tapers light,
    Laid forth books, and all ready dight. 
    The church door be undid,
    And seigh anon, in the stede,[50]
    The pel liggen in the tree,
    And thought well that it might be,
    That thieves had y-robbed somewhere,
    And gone there forth, and let it there. 
    Therto he yede, and it unwound,
    And the maiden child therin he found. 
    He took it up between his honde,
    And thanked Jesu Christes sonde,
    And home to his house he it brought,
    And took it to his daughter, and her besought
    That she should keep it as she con,
    For she was melche, and couthe thon.[51]
    She bade it suck, and it wold,
    For it was nigh dead for cold. 
      Anon, fire she a-light,
    And warmed it well aplight,[52]
    She gave it suck upon her barm,[53]
    And siththen, laid it to sleep warm. 
      And when the mass was y-done,
    The porter to the abbesse com full soon. 
    “Madame, what rede ye of this thinge? 
    To-day, right in the morning,
    Soon after the first stound,[54]
    A little maiden child ich found
    In hollow ash thin out
    And a pel her about;
    A ring of gold also was there;
    How it came thither I wot ne’er.” 
    The abbesse was a-wondered of this thing. 
    “Go,” she said, “on hying[55]
    And fetch it hither, I pray thee;
    It is welcome to God and me. 
    Ich will it helpen as I can,
    And segge it to my kinswoman.” 
    The porter anon it gan forth bring,
    With the pel, and with the ring. 
    The abbesse let clepe a priest