hen thrown off from the ladder, the sufferer will find himself
suspended, not by his neck, if it please you, but by the steel circle,
which supports the loops in which his feet are placed, and on which his
weight really rests, diminished a little by similar supports under each
arm. Thus, neither vein nor windpipe being compressed, the man will
breathe as free, and his blood, saving from fright and novelty of
situation, will flow as temperately as your valiancie's when you stand
up in your stirrups to view a field of battle."

"By my faith, a quaint and rare device!" quoth Buncle.

"Is it not?" pursued the leech, "and well worth being known to such
mounting spirits as your valiancies, since there is no knowing to what
height Sir John Ramorny's pupils may arrive; and if these be such that
it is necessary to descend from them by a rope, you may find my mode of
management more convenient than the common practice. Marry, but you must
be provided with a high collared doublet, to conceal the ring of steel,
and, above all, such a bonus socius as Smother well to adjust the
noose."

"Base poison vender," said Eviot, "men of our calling die on the field
of battle."

"I will save the lesson, however," replied Buncle, "in case of some
pinching occasion. But what a night the bloody hangdog Bonthron must
have had of it, dancing a pavise in mid air to the music of his own
shackles, as the night wind swings him that way and this!"

"It were an alms deed to leave him there," said Eviot; "for his descent
from the gibbet will but encourage him to new murders. He knows but two
elements--drunkenness and bloodshed."

"Perhaps Sir John Ramorny might have been of your opinion," said
Dwining; "but it would first have been necessary to cut out the rogue's
tongue, lest he had told strange tales from his airy height. And there
are other reasons that it concerns not your valiancies to know. In
truth, I myself have been generous in serving him, for the fellow is
built as strong as Edinburgh Castle, and his anatomy would have matched
any that is in the chirurgical hall of Padua. But tell me, Master
Buncle, what news bring you from the doughty Douglas?"

"They may tell that know," said Buncle. "I am the dull ass that bears
the message, and kens nought of its purport. The safer for myself,
perhaps. I carried letters from the Duke of Albany and from Sir John
Ramorny to the Douglas, and he looked black as a northern tempest when
he opened them. I