StoryTitle("caps", "The Legend of Bishop Hatto") ?>
Legend of Bishop Hatto" is doubtless a myth (Robert
Southey, 1774-1843). But "The Mouse-Tower on the Rhine" is an object
of interest to travellers, and the story has a point.
PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The summer and autumn had been so wet,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "That in winter the corn was growing yet:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "'Twas a piteous sight to see, all around,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The grain lie rotting on the ground.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Every day the starving poor", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Crowded around Bishop Hatto's door;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "For he had a plentiful last-year's store,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And all the neighbourhood could tell", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "His granaries were furnished well.", "") ?>
PagePoem(167, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "At last Bishop Hatto appointed a day", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To quiet the poor without delay:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "He bade them to his great barn repair,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And they should have food for winter there.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Rejoiced such tidings good to hear,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The poor folk flocked from far and near;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The great barn was full as it could hold", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Of women and children, and young and old.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Then, when he saw it could hold no more,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Bishop Hatto, he made fast the door;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And while for mercy on Christ they call,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "He set fire to the barn and burned them all.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"I' faith, 'tis an excellent bonfire!\" quoth he;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"And the country is greatly obliged to me", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "For ridding it in these times forlorn", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Of Rats that only consume the corn.\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "So then to his palace returnèd he,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And he sat down to supper merrily,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And he slept that night like an innocent man;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But Bishop Hatto never slept again.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "In the morning as he entered the hall,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Where his picture hung against the wall,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "A sweat-like death all over him came;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "For the Rats had eaten it out of the frame.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "As he looked, there came a man from his farm;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "He had a countenance white with alarm:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"My Lord, I opened your granaries this morn,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And the Rats had eaten all your corn.\"", "") ?>
PagePoem(168, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Another came running presently,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And he was pale as pale could be:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"Fly, my Lord Bishop, fly!\" quoth he,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"Ten thousand Rats are coming this way;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The Lord forgive you yesterday!\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"I'll go to my town on the Rhine,\" replied he;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"'Tis the safest place in Germany;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The walls are high, and the shores are steep,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And the stream is strong, and the water deep.\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Bishop Hatto fearfully hastened away,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And he crossed the Rhine without delay,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And reached his tower, and barred with care", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "All windows, doors, and loop-holes there.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "He laid him down, and closed his eyes;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But soon a scream made him arise:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "He started and saw two eyes of flame", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "On his pillow, from whence the screaming came.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "He listened and looked; it was only the cat:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But the Bishop he grew more fearful for that;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "For she sat screaming, mad with fear", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "At the army of Rats that was drawing near.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "For they have swum over the river so deep,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And they have climbed the shore so steep;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And up the tower their way is bent,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To do the work for which they were sent.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "They are not to be told by the dozen or score;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "By thousands they come, and by myriads and more;", "") ?>
PagePoem(169, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Such numbers had never been heard of before,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Such a judgment had never been witnessed of yore.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Down on his knees the Bishop fell,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And faster and faster his beads did tell,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "As, louder and louder drawing near,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The gnawing of their teeth he could hear.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And in at the windows and in at the door,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And through the walls, helter-skelter they pour,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And down from the ceiling and up through the floor,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "From the right and the left, from behind and before,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And all at once to the Bishop they go.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "They have whetted their teeth against the stones;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And now they pick the Bishop's bones:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "They gnawed the flesh from every limb;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "For they were sent to do judgment on him!", "") ?>
PoemAttribution("100", SmallCapsText("Robert Southey.")) ?>
PoemEnd() ?>