Sir Thomas.

“My mouth is out of taste this morning; or the same wine, mayhap, hath a different force and flavor in the dining-room and among friends.  But to business—­what more?”

“Euseby Treen, what may it be?” said I.

“I know,” quoth he, “but dare not breathe it.”

Sir Thomas.

“I thought I had taken a glass of wine, verily.  Attention to my duty as a magistrate is paramount.  I mind nothing else when that lies before me.

“Carnaby!  I credit thy honesty, but doubt thy manhood.  Why not breathe it, with a vengeance?”

Joseph Carnaby.

“It was Euseby who dared not.”

Sir Thomas.

“Stand still!  Say nothing yet; mind my orders.  Fair and softly! compose thyself.”

They all stood silent for some time, and looked very composed, awaiting the commands of the knight.  His mind was clearly in such a state of devotion that peradventure he might not have descended for a while longer to his mundane duties, had not Master Silas told him that, under the shadow of his wing, their courage had returned and they were quite composed again.

“You may proceed,” said the knight.

Joseph Carnaby.

“Master Treen did take off his cap and wipe his forehead.  I, for the sake of comforting him in this his heaviness, placed my hand upon his crown; and truly I might have taken it for a tuft of bents, the hair on end, the skin immovable as God’s earth!”

Sir Thomas, hearing these words, lifted up his hands above his own head, and in the loudest voice he had yet uttered did he cry, —

“Wonderful are thy ways in Israel, O Lord!”

So saying, the pious knight did strike his knee with the palm of his right hand; and then gave he a sign, bowing his head and closing his eyes, by which Master Carnaby did think he signified his pleasure that he should go on deposing.  And he went on thus:-

Joseph Carnaby.

“At this moment one of the accomplices cried, ’Willy!  Willy! prithee stop! enough in all conscience!  First thou divertedst us from our undertaking with thy strange vagaries, thy Italian girls’ nursery sigh, thy Pucks and pinchings, and thy Windsor whimsies.  No kitten upon a bed of marum ever played such antics.  It was summer and winter, night and day with us within the hour; and in such religion did we think and feel it, we would have broken the man’s jaw who gainsaid it.  We have slept with thee under the oaks in the ancient forest of Arden, and we have wakened from our sleep in the tempest far at sea. {29a} Now art thou for frightening us again out of all the senses thou hadst given us, with witches and women more murderous than they.’

“Then followed a deeper voice:  ’Stouter men and more resolute are few; but thou, my lad, hast words too weighty for flesh and bones to bear up against.  And who knows but these creatures may pop amongst us at last, as the wolf did, sure enough, upon him, the noisy rogue, who so long had been crying wolf! and wolf!