rning, she beheld a strange
figure in a parti-coloured gown and hose, with a fool's cap and bells
on his head, whom she immediately recognised as the cardinal's jester,
Patch. The new-comer recognised her too, stared in astonishment, and
gave a leering look at Will Sommers.

"What brings you here, gossip Patch?" cried Will Sommers. "I thought you
were in attendance upon your master, at the court at Blackfriars."

"So I have been," replied Patch, "and I am only just arrived with his
grace."

"What! is the decision pronounced?" cried Will Sommers eagerly. "Is the
queen divorced? Is the king single again? Let us hear the sentence."

"Ay, the sentence!--the sentence!" resounded on all hands.

Stimulated by curiosity, the whole of the party rose from the table;
Simon Quanden got out of his chair; the other cooks left their joints to
scorch at the fire; the scullions suspended their work; and Hob and Nob
fixed their large inquiring black eyes upon the jester.

"I never talk thirsting," said Patch, marching to the table, and filling
himself a flagon of mead. "Here's to you, fair maiden," he added,
kissing the cup to Mabel, and swallowing its contents at a draught. "And
now be seated, my masters, and you shall hear all I have to relate, and
it will be told in a few words. The court is adjourned for three days,
Queen Catherine having demanded that time to prepare her allegations,
and the delay has been granted her."

"Pest on it!--the delay is some trick of your crafty and double-dealing
master," cried Will Sommers. "Were I the king, I know how I would deal
with him."

"What wouldst thou do, thou scurril knave?" cried Patch angrily.

"I would strip him of his ill-gotten wealth, and leave him only thee--a
fitting attendant--of all his thousand servitors," replied Will.

"This shall to his grace's ears," screamed Patch, amid the laughter of
the company--"and see whether your back does not smart for it."

"I fear him not," replied Will Sommers. "I have not yet told the king my
master of the rare wine we found in his cellar."

"What wine was that, Will?" cried Jack of the Bottles.

"You shall hear," replied Will Sommers, enjoying the disconcerted
look of the other jester. "I was at the palace at Hampton, when this
scant-witted knave invited me to taste some of his master's wine, and
accordingly to the cellar we went. 'This wine will surprise you,' quoth
he, as we broached the first hogshead. And truly it did surprise m