FIRESIDE STORIES. 495

 

 

father’s house, he passed and saluted her as usual. She returned
his greeting by repeating the following lines:

One moonshiny night, as I sat high,
Waiting for one to come by,

The boughs did bend; my heart did ache
To see what hole the fox did make.

Astounded by her unexpected knowledge of his base design,
in a moment of fury he stabbed her to the heart. This murder
occasioned a violent conflict between the tradespeople and the
students, the latter taking part with the murderer, and so fierce
was the skirmish that Brewer’s Lane, it is said, ran red with blood.
The place of appointment was adjoining the Divinity Walk,
which was in time past far more secluded than at the present day,
and she is said to have been buried in the grave made for her by
her enemy.

[According to another version of the tale, the name of the student was Fox, anda
fellow-student went with him to assist in digging the grave. The verses in this account
differ somewhat from the above.]

As I went out in a moonlight night,

I set my back against the moon,

I looked for one, and saw two come:

The boughs did bend, the leaves did shake,
I saw the hole the Fox did make.