e Earl of Warwick and his grace the Lord Clarence, so that they turned
unnaturally against their own kinsman, his highness? But 'Manus malorum
suos bonos breaket,'--that is to say, the fists of wicked men only whack
their own bones. Ye have all heard tell of Friar Bungey, my children?"

"Ay, ay!" answered two or three in a breath,--"a wizard, it's true, and
a mighty one; but he never did harm to the poor; though they do say he
made a quaint image of the earl, and--"

"Tut, tut!" interrupted the friar, "all Bungey did was to try to
disenchant the Lord Warwick, whom yon miscreant had spellbound. Poor
Bungey! he is a friend to the people: and when he found that Master Adam
was making a device for their ruin, he spared no toil, I assure ye, to
frustrate the iniquity. Oh, how he fasted and watched! Oh, how many a
time he fought, tooth and nail, with the devil in person, to get at the
infernal invention! for if he had that invention once in his hands, he
could turn it to good account, I can promise ye: and give ye rain for
the green blade and sun for the ripe sheaf. But the fiend got the better
at first; and King Edward, bewitched himself for the moment, would have
hanged Friar Bungey for crossing old Adam, if he had not called three
times, in a loud voice, 'Presto pepranxenon!' changed himself into a
bird, and flown out of the window. As soon as Master Adam Warner found
the field clear to himself, he employed his daughter to bewitch the Lord
Hastings; he set brother against brother, and made the king and Lord
George fall to loggerheads; he stirred up the rebellion; and where
he would have stopped the foul fiend only knows, if your friend Friar
Bungey, who, though a wizard as you say, is only so for your benefit
(and a holy priest into the bargain), had not, by aid of a good spirit,
whom he conjured up in the island of Tartary, disenchanted the king, and
made him see in a dream what the villanous Warner was devising against
his crown and his people,--whereon his highness sent Master Warner and
his daughter back to their roost, and, helped by Friar Bungey, beat his
enemies out of the kingdom. So, if ye have a mind to save your children
from mischief and malice, ye may set to work with good heart, always
provided that ye touch not old Adam's iron invention. Woe betide ye, if
ye think to destroy that! Bring it safe to Friar Bungey, whom ye will
find returned to the palace, and journeyman's wages will be a penny a
day higher for