the mercer; (6 and thou canst tell one the reality of the new fashions too- - Here was a rogue pedlar but now, was crying up the old-fashioned Spanish nether stock over the Gascoigne hose, although thou seest how well the French hose set off the leg and knee, being adorned with parti-coloured garters and garniture in conformity."

"Excellent! excellent!" replied Lambourne ; 66 why, thy limber bit of a thigh, thrust through that bunch of slashed buckram and tiffany, shews like a housewife's distaff, when the flax is half spun off."

"Said I not so ?" said the mercer, whose shallow brain was now overflowed in his turn; "where then, where be this rascal pedlar ?— there was a pedlar here but now, methinks - Mine host, where the foul fiend

is this pedlar ?"

"Where wise men should be, Master Goldthred," replied Giles Gosling; "even shut up in his private chamber, telling over the sales of to-day, and preparing for the custom of to-morrow."

“Hang him, a mechanical chuff," said the mercer; "but for shame, it were a good deed to ease him of his wares,- -a set of peddling knaves, who stroll through the land, and hurt the established trader. There are good fellows in Berkshire yet, mine host-your pedlar may be met withal on Maiden Castle."

66

Ay," replied mine host, laughing, "and he who meets him may meet his match the pedlar is a tall

66

"Is he ?" replied the host; ay, by cock and pye is he! The very pedlar he who raddled Robin Hood so tightly, as the song says,

66

'Now Robin Hood drew his sword so good,

The pedlar drew his brand,

And he hath raddled him, Robin Hood,

Till he neither could see nor stand.""

Hang him, foul scroyle! let him pass," said the mercer; "if he be such a one, there were small worship to be won upon him. And now tell me, Mike my honest Mike, how wears the Hollands you won of me ?'

"Why, well, as you may see, Master Goldthred," answered Mike; "I will bestow a pot on thee for the handsel. Fill the flagon, Master

Tapster."

"Thou wilt win no more Hollands, I think, on such wager, friend Mike," said the mercer; "for the sulky swain, Tony Foster, rails at thee all to nought, and swears you shall ne'er darken his doors again, for that your oaths are enough to blow the roof off a Christian man's dwelling."

"Doth he say so, the mincing hypocritical miser ?” vociferated Lambourne ;. "Why then he shall come down and receive my commands here, this blessed night, under my uncle's roof! And I will ring him such a black sanctus, that he shall think the devil hath him by the skirts for a month to come, for barely hearing me."

"Nay, now the pottle-pot is uppermost, with a witness," said the mercer. "Tony Foster obey thy whistle! Alas! good Mike, go sleep — go sleep."

"I tell thee what, thou thin-faced gull," said Michael Lambourne, in high chafe, "I will wager thee fifty angels against the first five shelves of thy shop, numbering upward from the false light, with all that is on them, that I make Tony Foster come down to

this public house, before we have finished three rounds."

"I will lay no bet to that amount," said the mercer, something sobered by an offer which intimated rather too private a knowledge, on Lambourne's part, of the secret recesses of his shop, "I will lay no such wager," he said; "but I will stake five angels against thy five, if thou wilt, that Tony Foster will not leave his own roof, or come to ale-house after prayer time, for thee, or any man."

"Here, uncle,

"Content," said Lambourne. hold stakes, and let one of your young bleed-barrels there one of your infant tapsters, trip presently up to the Place, and give this letter to Master Foster, and say that I, his ingle, Michael Lambourne, pray to speak with him at mine uncle's castle here, upon business of grave import. Away with thee, child, for it is now sun-down, and the wretch goeth to bed with the birds, - faugh!"

to save mutton-suet

-an

Shortly after this messenger was despatched. interval which was spent in drinking and buffoonery— he returned with the answer, that Master Foster was coming presently.

"Won, won!" said Lambourne, darting on the stake.

"Not till he comes, if you please," said the mercer, interfering.

“Why, 'sblood! he is at the threshold,” replied Michael" What said he, boy ?"

"If it please your worship," answered the messenger, "he looked out of window, with a musquetoon in his hand; and when I delivered your errand, which I did with fear and trembling, he said, with a vinegar aspect, that your worship might be gone to the infernal regions."

"it

"Or to hell, I suppose," said Lambourne- 66 is there he disposes of all that are not of the congregation."

"Even so," said the boy; "I used the other phrase, as being the more poetical."

"An ingenious youth," said Michael; "shalt have a drop to whet thy poetical whistle. And what said Foster next ?"

"He called me back," answered the boy," and bid me say, you might come to him, if you had aught to say to him."

"And what next ?" said Lambourne.

"He read the letter, and seemed in a fluster, and asked if your worship was in drink —and I said you were speaking a little Spanish, as one who had been in the Canaries."

66 'Out, you diminutive pint-pot, whelped of an overgrown reckoning!" replied Lambourne "Out!,

But what said he then ?"

"Why, he muttered, that if he came not, your worship would bolt out what were better kept in; and so he took his old fleet cap, and thread-bare blue cloak, and, as I said before, he will be here incontinent."

"There is truth in what he said," replied Lambourne, as if speaking to himself. "My brain has played me its old dog's trick— but couragio — let him approach!I have not rolled about in the world, for many a day, to fear Tony Foster, be I drunk or sober. Bring me a flagon of cold water to christen my sack withal."

While Lambourne, whom the approach of Foster seemed to have recalled to a sense of his own condition, was busied in preparing to receive him, Giles Gosling stole up to the apartment of the pedlar,

whom he found traversing the room in much agitation.

"You withdrew yourself suddenly from the com" said the landlord to the guest.

pany,

"It was time when the devil became one among you," replied the pedlar.

"It is not courteous in you to term my nephew by such a name," said Gosling, "nor is it kindly in me to reply to it; and yet, in some sort, Mike may be considered as a limb of Satan."

"Pooh! I talk not of the swaggering ruffian," replied the pedlar, "it is of the other, who, for aught I know. But when go they? or wherefore

come they ?"

66

Marry, these are questions I cannot answer," replied the host. "But, look you, sir, you have brought me a token from worthy Master Tressilian -a pretty stone it is." He took out the ring, and looked at it, adding, as he put it into his purse again, that it was too rich a guerdon for any thing he could do for the worthy donor. He was, he said, in the public line, and it ill became him to be too inquisitive into other folks' concerns; he had already said, that he could hear nothing, but that the lady lived still at Cumnor Place, in the closest seclusion, and, to such as by chance had a view of her, seemed pensive and discontented with her solitude. "But here," he said, "if you are desirous to gratify your master, is the rarest chance that hath occurred for this many a day. Tony Foster is coming down hither, and it is but letting Mike Lambourne smell another wine-flask, and the queen's command would not move him from the ale-bench. So they are fast for an hour or so — Now, if you will don your pack, which will be your best excuse, you may, perchance, win the ear of the old