in his glory to me that sit upon a
stone. Now mark--' He extended his white hand. 'This hand, o'
yestereen, had a ring with a great green stone. Now no ring is here.
It was given me by my seventeenth leman, who had two eyes that looked
not together. No twelve robbers had taken it from me by force, since I
had made a pact with the devil that these wall eyes should never look
across my face whilst that ring was there. Now, God knows, I may find
her in Calais. So mark well----' He had been sent to Paris to rid
France of the Cardinal Pole; for the Cardinal Pole, being a succubus
of the fiend, had a magical tongue and had been inducing the French
King to levy arms, in the name of that arch-devil, the Bishop of Rome,
against their goodly King Henry, upon whom God shed His peace.
Culpepper raised his bonnet at the Deity's name, stuck it far back on
his red head, and continued: Therefore the mouth of Cardinal Pole was
to be stayed in Paris town.

Culpepper smote his breast ferociously and with a black pride.

'And I have stayed it!' he peacocked. 'I and no other. I--T.
Culpepper--a made man!'

'Not so,' Poins answered stubbornly. 'Thou wast sent to Paris to slay,
and thou hast not slain!'

'Thou liest!' Culpepper asseverated. 'I was sent to purge Paris town,
and I ha' purged un. No pothicary had done it better nor Hercules that
was a stall groom and cleaned stables in antick days.' For, at the
first breath of news that Culpepper was in the town, at the first
rumour that the king's assassin was in Paris, Cardinal Pole had
gathered his purple skirts about his knees; at the second sound he had
cast them off altogether and, arrayed as a woman or a barber's leech,
had fled hot foot to Brescia and thence to Rome.

'That was a nothing!' Culpepper asseverated. 'Though I ha' heard said
that Hercules was made a god for cleaning stables that he found no
easy task. But I will grant that it was no task for me to cleanse a
whole town. For I needed no besoms, nor even no dagger, but the mere
shadow of my beard upon the cobbly stones of Paris sufficed. I say
nothing of that which befel in the day's journey; but mark this! mark
what follows!' He had set out from Paris upon a high horse, with a
high heart; he had frighted off all robbers and all sturdy rogues upon
the road; he had slept at good inns as became a made man, and had
bought himself a goodly pair of embroidered gloves which he could well
pay for out of his superfluity. Being in