Fair Ingeborg's Disguise

Fair Ingeborg let clothes be made,
"I'll try," said she, "a courtier's trade."
Such secret sorrow she feels for him.

She mounted horse in livery drest,
"I'll ride and be the Prince's guest."
Such secret sorrow &c.

"O Prince, give ear to what I say,
"And deign to take me into pay/'

"A clever horseboy much I need,
"Had I but room to stall his steed.

"Yet well may his with mine agree,
"And he shall share my bed with me."

Three years to serve the Prince she stay'd,
And no one knew she was a maid.

Three years she serv'd in horseboy's stead,
The foals to grass and water led;

She drove them back again to stall,
A boy they thought her, one and all.

She pleas'd the Ladies old and young.
So tender were the lays she sung.

Like threads of gold her ringlets shone,
'Twas that the Prince's favour won.

But while she plied about the court,
Her hair grew pale, and breathing short.

And strange to see such change in her,
She could not buckle on a spur.

And what was stranger still, they saw.
Her sword she could no longer draw.

The Prince he bade five maidens call.
None lovelier found among them all.

With purple mantle round her thrown
They took her into the house of stone.

And soon, reclined on bolsters blue,
She sat there nursing infants two.

In came the Prince, and great his joy
To see with twins his stable-boy.

He gently stroked her pallid face;
"This crown upon thy temples place,

"Henceforth art thou my wedded wife,
And true to thee I'll be for life."