Murrain upon such
varlet vermin! It is but of late years that dignities have come to
be reviled. The other parts of the Gospel were broken long before,-
-this was left us; and now this likewise is to be kicked out of
doors, amid the mutterings of such mooncalves as him yonder."
"Too true, Silas!" said the knight, sighing deeply. "Things are not
as they were in our glorious wars of York and Lancaster. The knaves
were thinned then,--two or three crops a year of that rank squitch-
grass which it has become the fashion of late to call the people.
There was some difference then between buff doublets and iron mail,
and the rogues felt it. Well-a-day! we must bear what God willeth,
and never repine, although it gives a man the heart-ache. We are
bound in duty to keep these things for the closet, and to tell God
of them only when we call upon his holy name, and have him quite by
ourselves."
Sir Silas looked discontented and impatient, and said, snappishly, -
"Cast we off here, or we shall be at fault. Start him, sir!--
prithee, start him."
Again his worship, Sir Thomas, did look gravely and grandly, and
taking a scrap of paper out of the Holy Book then lying before him,
did read distinctly these words:-
"Providence hath sent Master Silas back hither, this morning, to
confound thee in thy guilt.
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