the mercer, his fat sides shaking with laughter; and then the two again essayed to raise the tipsy scrivener.

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Spare my money, and take my life," drawled out he, as he arrived at his perpendicular.

"Thy money's safe, I'll be bound for it; and as for thy life, 'tis the safer of the two, for it be not worth the taking." And then the mirth of Geoffrey Sarsnet burst out as loud as ever.

"Oh, my gold! my gold!" cried the old miser, knocking his hands together, and looking marvelously helpless and pitiful, as, supported by the arms of Ralph Goshawk round his waist, he dragged himself along. The young haberdasher accompanying him with a monstrous dignified slow march, and looking as tenderly on his charge, as if he had been some delicate princess; and the jolly mercer, following with the light, ever and anon breaking out in his customary laugh. "Gently with him!" exclaimed he. "Hold him up, or he will slip down again, and mayhap hurt his fool's head. Stop, let me put on his hat-and here's thine. Now, let me ope the door: and if thou meet any of the watch, say it be an honest friend of mine, and they will molest thee not; for I be in good odour with Master Constable, and have treated many of his brethren with a tankard. Good night to thee, old boy; and, prythee, keep thy body up if thou canst. Good night, Ralph!"

The young haberdasher no sooner heard the words that had just been uttered, than holding his charge firmly with one arm, he struck out the other, and replied, "Thus Rhadamanthus spoke-" "Hang Rhadamanthus and thee too!" cried the other, as he banged the street door in his face: and what Rhadamanthus spoke remaineth to this day a mystery. The jolly mercer, like a careful citizen, fastened the door, and saw that all things were safe in his house; and then went he up stairs to bed, singing very merrily

"Full oft' to the great have I held my prate;
But when I have had good ale enow,

I be not afeard to wag my beard

With any woman's son, be he high or low."

CHAPTER XII.

Since Fortune's will is now so bent
To plague me thus, poor man!
I must myself therewith content,
And bear it as I can.

SIR THOMAS WYATT.

Happy is he that lives in such a sort;

He need not fear the tongues of false report.

LORD SURREY.

What comfort have we now?

By Heaven, I'll hate him everlastingly
That bids me be of comfort any more.

SHAKSPEARE.

THERE was a goodly company in the parlour of mine host of the Ship at Chatham, whereof most of them seemed to be sea-faring men from the vessels lying in the harbour, ship-wrights of the town, and the like. Some were a playing at shove-groat; others leaning out of the open bow-window watching the ships. Here one was upon a bench as fast as a church,-there another a nodding his head over the table, as if he would speedily follow his neighbour's example; many were a drinking, and some few discoursing very soberly; whilst ever and anon mine host (a very tapster-looking varlet, with a right rosy face and a short plump body) came in and out, serving of his customers with a tankard or so, and having something to say to all.

"Prythee, tell me what ship be that, Simon Mainsail?" enquired a stout handicraftsman of some sort, to a weather-beaten old mariner with a scarred face, who stood by him at the window.

"Which ship, messmate?" asked the other.

"That one that hath but lately come in," said the first.

"Oh! be that she squaring her yards?" observed the mariner enquiringly.

"Nay, I know not if she be squaring of her yards or her inches," replied the handicraftsman; "but it seemeth to me that she be just come to an anchor."

"That be the craft, ey?" answered his companion. “Tis a pinnace of my Lord Admiral's, called the Disdain, and many a time and oft' have I been afloat in her. She saileth well enough afore the wind -ay, my heart! as bravely as a witch in a sieve; but she wears heavily in some weathers. I was in her off the Lizard, when we first had sight of the Spanish armada, and Captain Jonas Bradbury was her captain-a right gallant gentleman, and a skilful. Well, when my Lord Admiral had allowed the villain Spaniards, with all their host of big ships, amounting to 160 sail, to pass him by as they did, swaggering it along like very bullies as they were, we in the Disdain were sent to challenge them to the fight, at the which we lost no time, for

we straight bore down upon the nearest, and discharged our ordnance at her. Then up came my Lord Admiral, in the ark Royal, giving to the first galleon of the enemy such a broadside as made her shiver in all her timbers. Close at his stern came Drake, in the Revenge, Sir John Hawkins in the Victory, and Sir Martin Frobisher in the Triumph, which last was the biggest of all our ships, and they soon began to fire away like mad. Other of our craft followed, and they of the armada, after a while, liked not our salutations, I promise you; for they that were nighest to us bore away as if Old Clooty was at their heels; but not before we had done them great damagement, burnt one of their largest ships, and took another, in the which we found 55,000 ducats, whereof I spent my share (for it was all divided amongst the sailors) in drinking confusion to all villain Spaniards." "That was a proud time for old England," remarked a bystander. "Proud time!" exclaimed Simon Mainsail. "'Slife messmate! I never think on't but I feel as if I were head and shoulders taller." "Here be a brimming tankard, my masters!" cried mine host, as he set a filled jug before two youths, who appeared by their looks to be but simple apprentices. "I doubt not 'twill warm your young hearts famously. 'Tis mild as milk, and soft as silk; and as good as can be drunk by any nobleman in the land. But the money, my masters-the money!"

"How much be the cost of it?" asked one very innocently.

"Why, to such noble young gentlemen I must say a groat; though I would not let those of meaner quality have it under three-pence, I promise you." Thereat he nudged a bystander at the elbow.

"I thank you, kindly, good sir," replied the youth; and then in a whisper added to his companion, "Tim, hast got twopence?-for no more than that have I."

"I have it to a farthing," said the other; and thereupon handed him the amount, which with his own he placed in the hands of mine host. "I think you will find it right," observed the apprentice, as he noticed the tapster begin counting of it.

"One penny-two-three-a halfpenny and two farthings is it exactly, and thank your worship," replied mine host, with a monstrous serious countenance, whilst all in the room could scarce refrain from a laugh.

"Will you take a drink with us, good sir?" asked Tim modestly. "That will I, and thank your honour," answered mine host, raising the untasted jug to his mouth. "So, you worships' very good health!"

"I thank you," said both at the same time. The two apprentices now watched the tapster very curiously, as they saw his head gradually fall back as he was a drinking of their liquor, and his stomach poke out as much, till he put down the tankard.

"Why, he's drank it all!" exclaimed one, opening his eyes with astonishment, as soon as he discovered the vessel was empty; at the which announcement the jaw of the other fell prodigiously, and all the company burst out into a roar of laughter.

"Your worship was good enough to ask me to take a drink, and

methinks I have done your bidding famously," said mine host; and without ever a word more, he walked straight from the room as if he had done nothing out of the common, leaving every one a laughing more than ever, and the two youths looking at each other as foolish as you please. The latter seemed as if they knew not whether to go or to stay. Without doubt they were monstrously ashamed, and would have given their ears never to have entered into a place, whereof, it is on the face of it, they had had so little experience; but whilst they were a reddening and fidgetting about, and making up a resolution to take to their heels, in comes mine host with a full tankard, as if for another customer, and with such an exceeding comic face, that at the sight of it the company lauglied louder than at first.

"Here be a somewhat larger tankard than the one I brought you in awhile since," said the tapster, as he placed the vessel before the astonished youths. "But the liquor hath been drawn from the same tap, I'll warrant it. 'Tis in exchange for that I have swallowed. Drink, and make your hearts merry, my masters. But let me give you this piece of advice, which you will, I doubt not, find of some profit to follow. Never ask another to drink with you till you have first gauged his stomach to see what he will hold."

"I'll gauge him without fail, depend on't, good sir," exclaimed Tim, in an excellent cheerful humour; and then all in the room expressed their delight at mine host's conceit, and many did order fresh tankards they were so well pleased with the handsome way in which he had made amends to the simple apprentices for the trick he had played upon them.

"That be so like thee, Ephraim Spigot," observed one merrily. "That be a sure thing," replied he, after the same fashion. "For of all my family I be reckoned most like myself." Thereat there was a laugh of course; and he took himself out in the midst of it. "Knowest thou where that vessel hath been?" enquired the handicraftsman of his neighbour.

"I did hear she sailed to bring back Sir Walter Raleigh," replied Simon Mainsail.

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'What, he that went from here on the late expedition ?" asked his companion.

"Ay, messmate, the same," said the mariner.

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It hath been said that he be in disgrace at court, for that he will not splice himself unto a gentlewoman of the queen's choosing," observed another seafaring man.

"Now, I heard from my gammer," said an artificer; "and my gammer got it from her gossip, and her gossip had it from a cousin of hers, who is a serving-man to some person of worship in London, that this Sir Walter Raleigh hath fallen out with the great Earl of Essex, and that they were nigh coming to blows before the queen's majesty, the which put her into so monstrous a fret, that she straightway forbid them her presence.'

"Tis said that this Raleigh be a famous conceited fellow," remarked another, "and spendeth as much on his back as would clothe a whole county."

"What dreadful extravagance!" exclaimed the handicraftsman ; "why cannot he be content with a jerkin of a moderate price, such as might become any honest man, and give the rest to the poor?"

"Why, messmate, thus runs the log," replied the old mariner, hitching up his slops; "if so be he be ordered to dress his vessel after one fashion, he must needs do it, or be put in the bilboes for a mutineer. Mayhap he hath had signals from his admiral to have his rigging smarter than ordinary; and like a good seaman, he hath obeyed orders. As for his hanging astern at court, for not consorting with such as his betters choose for him, I have seen none that have taken soundings there, therefore have I no chart to go by to lead me to the truth; and whether he have come to an engagement with Lord Essex, know I as little; but let him have sailed on either tack, or for the matter of that, on both, I see nothing in it discreditable to his seamanship."

"I heard from a very honest intelligencer that he was to be fetched back from his command, in huge disgrace," observed one of the artificers.

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'Mayhap," replied Simon Mainsail; "the very best man that walks aplank can't always have fair weather with his officers, albeit he have no fault in him;-for on one watch they shall be in this humour, and the next in one that is clean contrary. 'Slife! it be the difficultest thing that is for a fellow to warp out o'harbour without meeting with a squall from some of 'em. As for Sir Walter Raleigh, 'tis like enough I be as familiar with his trim and sea-worthiness as any, seeing that I served as gunner under him in Drake and Norris's expedition to the Groyne, in the year eighty-nine; and I can say this much, that never met I a more proper commander. He be none of your thundering great ships that bear down upon us smaller craft, as if they would swamp every mother's son of us; but he hath often and often crept up along side of me, and spoke about gunnery and such matters with as much cunning as if he had been at load and fire all his life. And as for his spirit,-after we landed in the Bay of Ferrol, I saw him bear up among the Spaniards at Puente de Burgos, after a fashion that reminded me only of that right gallant officer his kinsman, Sir Richard Grenville."

"And what did he, neighbour?" asked the handicraftsman. "What did he, messmate?" replied the veteran,-"why he did the gallantest thing that ever was known on the high seas. You shall hear, for it be marvellously worth the telling. You see there was a fleet sent out in the year ninety-one,under the command of Lord Thomas Howard, consisting of six ships royal, six victuallers, and a few pinnaces, whereof Sir Richard Grenville was vice-admiral, in the Revenge, in the which I had gone on board as master gunner; and this expedition, like unto the one that sailed from here awhile ago with Sir Walter Raleigh, had for its object the surprising of the Plate fleet, belonging to the villain Spaniards, as it rendez-voused at the Azores, coming from America. Somehow or another, the pestilent knaves, the enemy, had wind of it, and they sent a fleet of fifty-three of their biggest ships of war to act as convoy; of the which we knowing nothing, were quietly taking in water at Flores, when down they came