the bushes, he stood in amazement to see two men bounding
about on their heads, while they played, the one a viol and the other
a pipe, as merrily and as truly as though they were seated in a choir.
Alleyne crossed himself as he gazed at this unnatural sight, and
could scarce hold his ground with a steady face, when the two dancers,
catching sight of him, came bouncing in his direction. A spear's length
from him, they each threw a somersault into the air, and came down upon
their feet with smirking faces and their hands over their hearts.

"A guerdon--a guerdon, my knight of the staring eyes!" cried one.

"A gift, my prince!" shouted the other. "Any trifle will serve--a purse
of gold, or even a jewelled goblet."

Alleyne thought of what he had read of demoniac possession--the
jumpings, the twitchings, the wild talk. It was in his mind to repeat
over the exorcism proper to such attacks; but the two burst out
a-laughing at his scared face, and turning on to their heads once more,
clapped their heels in derision.

"Hast never seen tumblers before?" asked the elder, a black-browed,
swarthy man, as brown and supple as a hazel twig. "Why shrink from us,
then, as though we were the spawn of the Evil One?"

"Why shrink, my honey-bird? Why so afeard, my sweet cinnamon?" exclaimed
the other, a loose-jointed lanky youth with a dancing, roguish eye.

"Truly, sirs, it is a new sight to me," the clerk answered. "When I saw
your four legs above the bush I could scarce credit my own eyes. Why is
it that you do this thing?"

"A dry question to answer," cried the younger, coming back on to
his feet. "A most husky question, my fair bird! But how? A flask, a
flask!--by all that is wonderful!" He shot out his hand as he spoke, and
plucking Alleyne's bottle out of his scrip, he deftly knocked the neck
off, and poured the half of it down his throat. The rest he handed to
his comrade, who drank the wine, and then, to the clerk's increasing
amazement, made a show of swallowing the bottle, with such skill
that Alleyne seemed to see it vanish down his throat. A moment later,
however, he flung it over his head, and caught it bottom downwards upon
the calf of his left leg.

"We thank you for the wine, kind sir," said he, "and for the ready
courtesy wherewith you offered it. Touching your question, we may tell
you that we are strollers and jugglers, who, having performed with much
applause at Winchester fair, are now on our way to the great