31211211And so Prince Henry chased me, that lo
212212I found no place wherein I might abide,
213213For as the dogs pursue the sely doe,
214214The brach behind the hounds on every side,
215215So traced they me among the mountains wide,
216216Whereby I found I was the heartless hare
217217And not the beast colprophet did declare.
32218218And at the last: like as the little roach
219219Must either be eat, or leap upon the shore
220220When as the hungry pickrel doth approach,
221221And there find death which it escaped before,
222222So double death assaulted me so sore
223223That either I must unto my enemy yield,
224224Or starve for hunger in the barren field.
33225225Here shame and pain a while were at a strife,
226226Pain prayed me yield, shame bade me rather fast.
227227The one bade spare, the other spend my life,
228228But shame (shame have it) overcame at last.
229229Than hunger gnew, that doth the stone wall brast
230230And made me eat both gravel, dirt and mud,
231231And last of all, my dung, my flesh, and blood.
34232232This was mine end too horrible to hear,
233233Yet good enough for a life that was so ill.
234234Whereby (O Baldwin) warn all men to bear
235235Their youth such love, to bring them up in skill
236236Bid princes fly colprophets' lying bill,
237237And not presume to climb above their states,
238238For they be faults that foil men, not their fates.