ent and riven."

[*] A privateer.

"Well, Colonel," said the Duke, "I have used your valour before now, and
I may again; so that I shall speedily see that the vessel is careened,
and undergoes a thorough repair."

"I conjecture, then," said the Colonel, "that your Grace has some voyage
in hand?"

"No, but there is one which I want to interrupt," replied the Duke.

"Tis but another stave of the same tune.--Well, my lord, I listen,"
answered the stranger.

"Nay," said the Duke, "it is but a trifling matter after all.--You know
Ned Christian?"

"Ay, surely, my lord," replied the Colonel, "we have been long known to
each other."

"He is about to go down to Derbyshire to seek a certain niece of his,
whom he will scarcely find there. Now, I trust to your tried friendship
to interrupt his return to London. Go with him, or meet him, cajole him,
or assail him, or do what thou wilt with him--only keep him from London
for a fortnight at least, and then I care little how soon he comes."

"For by that time, I suppose," replied the Colonel, "any one may find
the wench that thinks her worth the looking for."

"Thou mayst think her worth the looking for thyself, Colonel," rejoined
the Duke; "I promise you she hath many a thousand stitched to her
petticoat; such a wife would save thee from skeldering on the public."

"My lord, I sell my blood and my sword, but not my honour," answered
the man sullenly; "if I marry, my bed may be a poor, but it shall be an
honest one."

"Then thy wife will be the only honest matter in thy possession,
Colonel--at least since I have known you," replied the Duke.

"Why, truly, your Grace may speak your pleasure on that point. It is
chiefly your business which I have done of late; and if it were less
strictly honest than I could have wished, the employer was to blame as
well as the agent. But for marrying a cast-off mistress, the man (saving
your Grace, to whom I am bound) lives not who dares propose it to me."

The Duke laughed loudly. "Why, this is mine Ancient Pistol's vein," he
replied.

----"Shall I Sir Pandarus of Troy become,
And by my side wear steel?--then Lucifer take all!"

"My breeding is too plain to understand ends of playhouse verse, my
lord," said the Colonel suddenly. "Has your Grace no other service to
command me?"

"None--only I am told you have published a Narrative concerning the
Plot."

"What should ail me, my lord?" said the Colonel; "I hope I am a witn