The boy’s mother, a poor widow, goes house to house, inquiring of the Jews the whereabouts of her son. Yet everyone lies to her, saying they know nothing of the child. Then Jesus himself puts in her thoughts the direction to the alley where the child had been murdered and the pit where his body was cast away. As the widow nears the place, the child’s voice breaks forth singing O Alma Redemptoris. The Christian people gather around in astonishment. The provost of the city is called; upon seeing the child, he bids all the Jews to be fettered, bound, and confined. Later, they are drawn by wild horses and hanged.
The child’s body is taken to a neighboring abbey. As the burial mass draws near, the child continues to sing O Alma Redemptoris loudly and clearly. He then tells the abbots that Christ has commanded him to sing until his time for his burial and that the Virgin Mary placed a pearl on his tongue. The child explains that he must sing until the pearl in taken away. “[T]hen a holy monk … / Touched the child’s tongue and took away the pearl; And he gave up the ghost so peacefully, So softly.” (“This hooly monk … hym meene I, / His tonge out caughte, and took awey the greyn (pearl) / And he yaf up the goost ful softely.”)
The child is proclaimed a martyr, and a tomb of marble is erected as a memorial to the young boy, whose name was Hugh of Lincoln.
