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Arden. Come, we are almost now at Rainham Down :

Your pretty tale beguiles the weary way ;

I would you were in state to tell it out.

Shakebag. Stand close. Will, I hear them coming,

Here enters Lord Cheiny with his men.

Will. Stand to it, Shakebag, and be resolute.

L. Cheiny. Is it so near night as it seems,

Or will this black-faced evening have a shower?

— What, Master Arden ? you are well met,

I have longed this fortnight's day to speak with you :

You are a stranger, man, in the Isle of Sheppy.

Arden. Your honour's always ! bound to do you service.

L. Cheiny. Come you from London, and ne'er a man with you ?

Arden, My man 's coming after, but here 's

My honest friend that came along with me.

L. Cheiny. My Lord Protector's man I take you to be.

Franklin. Ay, my good lord, and highly bound to you.

L. Cheiny. You and your friend come home and sup with me.

Arden. I beseech your honour pardon me ;

I have made a promise to a gentleman,

My honest friend, to meet him at my house ; Io

The occasion is great, or else would I wait on you.

L. Cheiny. Will you come to-morrow and dine with me,

And bring your honest friend along with you .

I have divers matters to talk with you about.

Arden. To-morrow we'll wait upon your honour.

L. Cheiny. One of you stay my horse at the top of the hill.

— What ! Black Will ? for whose purse wait you ?

Thou wilt be hanged in Kent, when all is done.

Will. Not hanged, God save your honour ;

I am your bedesman, bound to pray for you.

L. Cheiny. I think thou ne'er said'st prayer in all thy life.—

One of you give him a crown : —

And, sirrah, leave this kind of life ;

If thou beest tainted for a penny-matter,

And come in question, surely thou wilt truss.

— Come, Master Arden, let us be going ;

Your way and mine lies four miles together.

Exeunt.

Manet Black Will and Shakebag.

Will. The devil break all your necks at four miles' end !

Zounds, I could kill myself for very anger !

His lordship chops me in,

Even when my dag was levelled at his heart.

I would his crown were molten down his throat.

Shakebag. Arden, thou hast wondrous holy luck.

Did ever man escape as thou hast done?

Well, I'll discharge my pistol at the sky,

For by this bullet Arden might not die.

Here enters Greene.

Greene. What, is he down? is he dispatched?

Shakebag. Ay, in health towards Feversham, to shame us all.

Greene. The devil he is ! why, sirs, how escaped he?

Shakebag. When we were ready to shoot,

Comes my Lord Cheiny to prevent his death.

Greene. The Lord of Heaven hath preserved him.

Will. Preserved a fig ! The Lord Cheiny hath preserved him,

And bids him to a feast to his house at Shorlow.

But by the way once more I'll meet with him,

And, if all the Cheinies in the world say no,

I'll have a bullet in his breast to-morrow.

Therefore come, Greene, and let us to Feversham.

Greene. Ay, and excuse ourselves to Mistress Arden :

O, how she 'll chafe when she hears of this !

Shakebag. Why, I'll warrant you she 'll think we dare not do it.

Will. Why, then let us go, and tell her all the matter,

And plat the news to cut him off to-morrow.

Exeunt.

ACT IV

SCENE I

Arden's house at Faversham.

Here enters Arden and his wife, Franklin, and Michael

Arden. See how the hours, the gardant of heaven's gate,

Have by their toil removed the darksome clouds,

That Sol may well discern the trampled path

Wherein he wont to guide his golden car ;

The season fits ; come, Franklin, let 's away.

Alice. I thought you did pretend some special hunt,

That made you thus cut short the time of rest.

Arden. It was no chase that made me rise so early,

But, as I told thee yesternight, to go

To the Isle of Sheppy, there to dine with my Lord Cheiny ; lo

For so his honour late commanded me.

Alice. Ay, such kind husbands seldom want excuses ;

Home is a wild cat to a wandering wit.

The time hath been, — would God it were not past, —

That honour's title nor a lord's command

Could once have drawn you from these