were you banish'd thence?

_Val._ I was.

_Sec. Out._ For what offence? 25

_Val._ For that which now torments me to rehearse:
I kill'd a man, whose death I much repent;
But yet I slew him manfully in fight,
Without false vantage or base treachery.

_First Out._ Why, ne'er repent it, if it were done so. 30
But were you banish'd for so small a fault?

_Val._ I was, and held me glad of such a doom.

_Sec. Out._ Have you the tongues?

_Val._ My youthful travel therein made me happy,
Or else I often had been miserable. 35

_Third Out._ By the bare scalp of Robin Hood's fat friar,
This fellow were a king for our wild faction!

_First Out._ We'll have him. Sirs, a word.

_Speed._ Master, be one of them; it's an honourable kind
of thievery. 40

_Val._ Peace, villain!

_Sec. Out._ Tell us this: have you any thing to take to?

_Val._ Nothing but my fortune.

_Third Out._ Know, then, that some of us are gentlemen,
Such as the fury of ungovern'd youth 45
Thrust from the company of awful men:
Myself was from Verona banished
For practising to steal away a lady,
An heir, and near allied unto the duke.

_Sec. Out._ And I from Mantua, for a gentleman, 50
Who, in my mood, I stabb'd unto the heart.

_First Out._ And I for such like petty crimes as these.
But to the purpose,--for we cite our faults,
That they may hold excused our lawless lives;
And partly, seeing you are beautified 55
With goodly shape, and by your own report
A linguist, and a man of such perfection
As we do in our quality much want,--

_Sec. Out._ Indeed, because you are a banish'd man,
Therefore, above the rest, we parley to you: 60
Are you content to be our general?
To make a virtue of necessity,
And live, as we do, in this wilderness?

_Third Out._ What say'st thou? wilt thou be of our consort?
Say ay, and be the captain of us all: 65
We'll do thee homage and be ruled by thee,
Love thee as our commander and our king.

_First Out._ But if thou scorn our courtesy, thou diest.

_Sec. Out._ Thou shalt not live to brag what we have offer'd.

_Val._ I take your offer, and will live with you, 70
Provided that you do no outrages
On silly women or poor passeng