I'll
have thee hung--ay, villain, beyond the reach of aught but crows and
kites."
"Whoy, mistress, I'd leifer be hung nor stifled to death wi' brimstone
and bad humours."
"None o' thy quiddities, thou maker of long lies and quick legs.
Confess, or I'll"--
"Whoy, look ye, mistress, you've been kind, and pulled me out of many an
ugly ditch."
"Why dost thou hesitate, knave? I'm glad thy memory is not so
treacherous as thy tongue."
"Nay, mistress, I've no notion to sup brose wi' t' old one: those that
dinner wi' him he may happen ask to supper; and he'd need have a long
whittle that cuts crumbs wi' the de'il."
"Art thou at thy riddles again? Speak in sober similitudes, if thou
canst, sirrah."
"Your father sent me on a message to the little devilkin last night. I
was loth enough to the job; but he catched me as I went wi' the
victuals."
"A message!--and to what purport?"
"Nay, that I know not. The invitation was conveyed in a scrap of
writing, and I'm not gifted in clerkship an' such like matters."
A ray of intelligence now burst upon her. She saw the imminent danger
which threatened the fugitive, who had been hitherto concealed
principally by her contrivances.
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