And through the same people the
custom came to this land of Wassail and Drinchail--many a man thereof
is glad' Rouwenne the fair sate by the king; the king beheld her
longingly, she was dear to him in heart, oft he kissed her, oft he
embraced her; all his mind and his might inclined towards the maiden.
The Worse was there full nigh, who in each game is full cruel; the
Worse who never did good, he troubled the king's mood; he mourned full
much, to have the maiden for wife. That was a most loathly thing, that
the Christian king should love the heathen maid, to the harm of his
people! The maiden was dear to the king, even as his own life; he
prayed to Hengest, his chieftain, that he should give him the
maid-child. Hengest found in his counsel to do what the king asked
him; he gave him Rouwenne, the woman most fair. To the king it was
pleasing; he made her queen, all after the laws that stood in the
heathen days; was there no Christendom, where the king took the maid,
nor priest, nor any bishop, nor was God's book ever handled, but in
the heathen fashion he wedded her, and brought her to his bed' Maiden
he had her, and ample gift bestowed on her; when he had disgraced
himself on her, he gave her London and Kent.
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