I put my back up to the
wall and cast my cloak back over my shoulder.

Whereat they laughed again, and he who had spoken first said:

"If I doubted it before, I am sure of it now, for no one but a Jesuit
could feign a swagger like that. Come, let's hang him and have done
with him."

"Come on," said I. "I tell you I'm no Jesuit, but a loyal London
'prentice, on a message for my master to Oxford. If you hold it English
that twenty men should set upon one, then--"

"What! a plague on you!" cried my opponent, before I could finish. "Why
did you not say what you were before? We have something better to do
than hang 'prentices. Get you gone--a stick to your back is what you
want, unmannerly dog."

"Fetch it then," said I, "for before I leave here I shall finish my
supper, and if you like not my company, you may go elsewhere."

I think they were abashed at that, for they tried to laugh it off, and
go on with their carouse. Indeed I think they meant only to frighten me
all the while, so perhaps I was a fool to take it all in earnest.
However that be, I finished my supper and bade them all good-night;
whereat they laughed again. Then, as an hour of daylight remained, I
called for my horse and resolved to ride to the next inn and lie there
for the night.

I had no cause to complain of the company here (it was the house midway
betwixt Maidenhead and Henley, as you come to Bisham), for I had the
place to myself. Nor did I wonder at that when I saw the pig-sty of an
inn which it was. The landlord, a villainous-looking rogue, demanded to
finger my money before he would admit me; and as for my horse, I had to
see to him myself, for there was no one about the place to do it for me.
However, a night's lodging was all I wanted, and, having brought away
the stable key in my pocket, I pulled my bed across the chamber floor,
wrapped myself up in my cloak, and slept like the seven sleepers.

The man eyed me surlily enough in the morning, and told me, if I doubted
his honesty, I might go and lie somewhere else next time; which I
promised to do, for I guessed when he talked of honesty that he had
tried to steal my horse in the night, and being baulked of that, had had
it in his mind to rob me. We parted in dudgeon; but I felt well out of
that place with my purse in my pocket and my horse under me.

As I rode through Henley, who should overtake me but a troop of
horsemen, among whom I recognised not a few of the roysterers