He writes me here, that inward ficknefs- Could not fo foon be drawn: nor thought he meet Of all our purposes. What fay you to it? To fet the exact wealth of all our states On the nice hazard of one doubtful hour? Of all our fortunes. Dowg. Faith, and fo we fhould; Where now remains a fweet reverfion. A comfort of retirement lives in this. Hot. A rendezvous, a home to fly unto, If that the Devil and Mifchance look big Upon the maidenhead of our affairs. Wor. But yet I would your father had been here: The quality and hair of our attempt Brooks no divison: it will be thought By fome, that know not why he is away, That wifdom, loyalty, and mere diflike Of our proceedings, kept the Earl from hence. And think, how fuch an apprehenfion May turn the tide of fearful faction, And And breed a kind of question in our caufe: And ftop all fight-holes, every loop, from whence Hot. You ftrain too far. I rather of his absence make this use: Than if the Earl were here: for men must think, To push against the Kingdom; with his help, Yet all goes well, yet all our joints are whole. Hot. Enter Sir Richard Vernon. Y coufin Vernon, welcome, by my foul! My fou pray God, my news be worth a wel come, lord. The Earl of Westmorland, fev'n thousand strong, Ver. And further, I have learn'd, The King himself in perfon hath fet forth, Or hitherwards intended speedily, With strong and mighty preparation. Hot. He fhall be welcome too: where is his fon? The nimble-footed mad-cap Prince of Wales, And his comrades, that daft the world afide And bid it pass? ་ Ver. All furnisht, all in arms, All All plum'd like Eftridges, that with the wind And witch the world with noble horsemanship. Hot. No more, no more; worse than the Sun in This praise doth nourish agues; let them come. And yet not ours. Come, let me take my horse, Ver. There is more news: I learn'd in Worcester, as I rode along, He cannot draw his Pow'r this fourteen days. Hot. Forty let it be; My father and Glendower being both away, Come, Come, let us take a mufter speedily: Fal. Changes to a Public Road, near Coventry. BA year. Exeunt. ARDOLPH, get thee before to Coventry, fill me a bottle of fack our foldiers fhall march through: we'll to Sutton-cop-hill to-night. Bard. Will you give me money, captain? Fal. Lay out, lay out. Bard. This bottle makes an angel. Fal. And if it do, take it for thy labour; and if it make twenty, take them all, I'll anfwer the coinage. Bid my lieutenant Peto meet me at the town's end. Bard. I will, captain; farewel. 1 [Exit. Fal. If I be not afham'd of my foldiers, I am a fowc'd gurnet: I have mif-us'd the King's Prefs damnably. I have got, in exchange of an hundred and fifty foldiers, three hundred and odd pounds. I prefs me none but good houfholders, yeomens' fons; enquire me out contracted bachelors, fuch as had been afk'd twice on the banes: fuch a commodity of warm flaves, as had as lieve hear the devil, as a drum; fuch as fear the report of a culverin, worse than a ftruck deer, or a hurt wild duck! I prefs me none but fuch toafts and butter, with hearts in their bellies no big ger than pins' heads, and they have bought out their fervices and now my whole Charge confifts of ancients, corporals, lieutenants, gentlemen of companies, flaves as ragged as Lazarus in the painted cloth, where the Glutton's dogs licked his fores: and fuch VOL. V. E as as indeed were never foldiers, but difcarded unjuft fervingmen, younger fons to younger brothers; revolted tapfters, and oftlers trade-fall'n, the cankers of a calm world and a long peace; ten times more difhonourably ragged, than an old-feaft ancient; and fuch have I to fill up the rooms of them that have bought out their fervices; that you would think, I had a hundred and fifty tatter'd Prodigals, lately come from swine-keeping, from eating draff and hufks. A mad fellow met me on the way, and told me, I had unloaded all the gibbets, and prest the dead bodies. No eye hath feen fuch fkare-crows : I'll not march through Coventry with them, that's flat. Nay, and the villains march wide betwixt the legs, as if they had* gyves on; for, indeed, I had the moft of them out of prifon. There's but a fhirt and a half in all my company; and the half fhirt is two napkins tack'd together, and thrown over the fhoulders like a herald's coat without fleeves; and the shirt, to fay the truth ftoll'n from my Hoft of St. Albans; or the red-nos'd Inn-keeper of Daintry. But that's all one, they'll find linen enough on every hedge. Enter Prince Henry, and Weftmorland. P. Henry. How now, blown Jack? how now, quilt? Fal. What, Hal? How now, mad wag, what a devil doft thou in Warwickshire? My good lord of Weftorland, I cry you mercy; I thought, your Honour had already been at Shrewsbury. Weft. 'Faith, Sir John, 'tis more than time that I were there, andy you too; but my Powers are there already. The King, I can tell you, looks for us all; we must away all to-night. I Fal. Tut, never fear me, I am as vigilant, as a Cat to fteal cream. P. Henry. I think, to fteal cream, * gyves on ;] i. e. Shakles. indeed; for thy Mr. Popes theft |