LXIV
False-Seeming as a pilgrim goes,
Disguised, to Evil-Tongue; and shows
Constrained-Abstinence likewise
Herself to him in saintly guise.12700
Envoys to Evil-Tongue
Behold you now neath what pretence
False-Seeming came with Abstinence
’Gainst Evil-Tongue. The wily twain
Held counsel how they best might gain
Their ends—in open guise to go,
Or hid beneath some cozening show;
And after much debate agreed,
That better ’twould their errand speed
If they began the war to wage
Disguised as folk on pilgrimage,12710
With air of holy innocence.
Forthwith Constrainèd-Abstinence
Appeared as a demure Beguine,
Attired in robe of cameline,
With fair white kerchief round her head,
The while with saintly look she read
Her psalter. At her waist was hung
A paternoster, thereto strung
By girdle-cord of purest white.
She had not bought it, but was dight12720
Therewith most kindly by a friar,
Her spiritual guide and sire,
And she from him gat more behoof
Than any neath the convent’s roof,
While he too loved to visit her
As holy guide and sermoner.
