"Get back in line and be polite
and wait yer turn, ye little shite!"
With this, he turned around to go
back to his "Chevalier flambeau"
and to prepare his pots and pans
for a second course of food in cans.
Sir Rambeaux found it opportune
to aim and throw- with great fortune-
his sword at him. He nearly died
of cardiac arrest- sheer fright!

Our knight untied the kitchen-maid
and told the wench to fetch a plate
of silver, for the dragon's head
(Who at this stage were not quite dead-
but realised he soon would be-
unless Sir Rambeaux's chivalry
prevented him to do the deed:
That dragon was last of his creed,
and if he died, there would be no
more dragons left- so he said so.

Sir Rambeaux showed no interest:
"I'm sorry- but I'm on a quest
to show my lady-friend how brave
I am- I want your head, you knave!"
(He didn't know that, in his bed,
the king was found quite cold and dead
two years before. The Queen was keen
on fauna, flora, issues green...)

The dragon did accept his fate,
lay down, and died, head on the plate.
Our knight went off to dream of glory-
the maid was left to do the gory
dragonhead-removal-act.
(She twice did faint- this is a fact!)
The two of them then put the dragon-
or his remains- onto a wagon.

Thus they went home. They passed the gates,
and through the streets. Sir Rambeaux's mates
uneasily looked on. "I'm ready
to get my due reward already!"
The Queen had watched with much dismay
the dragon's corpse put on display:
Sir Rambeaux noticed her cold stare-
and suddenly felt nude and bare...

"Your graciousness- your majesty!--
How glad I am to be with thee..."
The Queen did interrupt him rudely:
"Shut up, you twit!" said she quite crudely.
She then came up to take a look-
and hit him with a heavy book.
"This is the book of brand-new laws",
said she- and hit him in the jaws.

"You did exceed the quota set
in ‘hunting-regulations’, pet!
You also want a due reward?
Just wait for it...
Where is the guard?"
With this, she caught him by the phizem
and had him thrown into prison.
(Well- he was not alone in there-
five other knights already were
chained to the walls, with rats and mice
for company- to keep things nice.)

The Greeny-Queeny's harshness did
eventually cause a split,
resulting in a revolution.
The knights went free- then "evolution"
just took its course: Wolf, boar and bear
all went extinct, by sword and spear,
which thus did cause a lack of game.
The knights found hunting far too tame
in any case. They took their shields
and went back to the battle-fields...

Oh- well, it almost slipped my mind:
Sir Rambeaux in the end did find
a wife. Alas she was no queen:
A kitchen-maid of just sixteen
was she. It didn't really matter;
the queen's head ended on a platter
just as the dragons. And about
fifteen years later, in a rout
Sir Rambeaux died: Not by a sword…
but of a heart-attack. My word!

(WJB)