ng_, or _Promise-Pudding_. This Pudding he
did not fail to set off with large Encomiums; assuring
the King, That therein he wou'd find an Hieroglyphical
Definition of Courtiers Promises and Friendship.

This caused some Speculation; and the King's Physician
debarr'd the King from tasting the Pudding, not
knowing but that Sir _John_ had poison'd it.

But how great a Fit of Laughter ensu'd, may be easily
guess'd, when the Pudding was cut up, it prov'd only a
large Bladder, just clos'd over with Paste: The
Bladder was full of Wind, and nothing else, excepting
these Verses written in a Roll of Paper, and put in,
as is suppos'd, before the Bladder was blown full:

As Wynde in a Bladdere ypent,
is Lordings promyse and ferment;
fain what hem lust withouten drede,
they bene so double in her falshede:
For they in heart can think ene thing,
and fain another in her speaking:
and what was sweet and apparent,
is smaterlich, and eke yshent.
and when of service you have nede,
pardie he will not rein nor rede.
but when the Symnel it is eten,
her curtesse is all foryetten.

This Adventure met with various Constructions from
those at Table: Some Laugh'd; others Frown'd. But the
King took the Joke by the right End, and Laugh'd
outright.

The Verses, tho' but scurvy ones in themselves, yet in
those Days pass'd for tolerable: Nay, the King was
mightily pleas'd with 'em, and play'd 'em off on his
Courtiers as Occasion serv'd; he wou'd stop 'em short
in the middle of a flattering Harangue, and cry, _Not
a Word of the Pudding_. This wou'd daunt and mortify
'em to the last degree; they curs'd Sir _John_ a
thousand times over for the Proverb's sake: but to no
Purpose; for the King gave him a private Hearing:
In which he so well satisfy'd His Majesty of his
Innocence and Integrity, that all his Lands were
restor'd. The King wou'd have put him in his old Post;
but he modestly declin'd it, but at the same time
presented His Majesty with a Book of most excellent
Receipts for all kinds of Puddings: Which Book His
Majesty receiv'd with all imaginable Kindness, and
kept it among his greatest Rarities.

But yet, as the best Instructions, tho' never so
strictly followed, may not be always as successfully
executed, so not one of the King's Cooks cou'd make a
Pudding like Sir _John_; nay, tho' he made a Pudding
before their Eyes, yet they out of the very same
Materials could not do the like. Which made his old
F