“Euseby Treen! tell us whether thou observedst anything unnoticed or unsaid by the last witness.”

Euseby Treen.

“One thing only, sir!

“When they had passed the water an owlet hooted after them; and methought, if they had any fear of God before their eyes they would have turned back, he cried so lustily.”

William Shakspeare.

“Sir, I cannot forbear to take the owlet out of your mouth.  He knocks them all on the head like so many mice.  Likely story!  One fellow hears him cry lustily, the other doth not hear him at all!”

Joseph Carnaby.

“Not hear him!  A body might have heard him at Barford or Sherbourne.”

Sir Thomas.

“Why didst not name him?  Canst not answer me?”

Joseph Carnaby.

“He doubted whether punt were punt; I doubted whether owlet were owlet, after Lucifer was away from the roll-call.

“We say, speak the truth and shame the devil; but shaming him is one thing, your honour, and facing him another!  I have heard owlets, but never owlet like him.”

William Shakespeare.

“The Lord be praised!  All, at last, a-running to my rescue.

“Owlet, indeed!  Your worship may have remembered in an ancient book—­indeed, what book is so ancient that your worship doth not remember it?—­a book printed by Doctor Faustus—­”

Sir Thomas.

“Before he dealt with the devil?”

William Shakespeare.

“Not long before, it being the very book that made the devil think it worth his while to deal with him.”

Sir Thomas.

“What chapter thereof wouldst thou recall unto my recollection?”

William Shakspeare.

“That concerning owls, with the grim print afore it.

“Doctor Faustus, the wise doctor, who knew other than owls and owlets, knew the tempter in that form.  Faustus was not your man for fancies and figments; and he tells us that, to his certain knowledge, it was verily an owl’s face that whispered so much mischief in the ear of our first parent.

“One plainly sees it, quoth Doctor Faustus, under that gravity which in human life we call dignity, but of which we read nothing in the Gospel.  We despise the hangman, we detest the hanged; and yet, saith Duns Scotus, could we turn aside the heavy curtain, or stand high enough a-tiptoe to peep through its chinks and crevices, we should perhaps find these two characters to stand justly among the most innocent in the drama.  He who blinketh the eyes of the poor wretch about to die doeth it out of mercy; those who preceded him, bidding him in the garb of justice to shed the blood of his fellow-man, had less or none.  So they hedge well their own grounds, what care they?  For this do they catch at stakes and thorns, at quick and rotten—­”