Page:History of John Cheap the chapman (1).pdf/13

 ing some words which I knew not myself, and concluding with these words, Thou Monsieur Diable, brother to Beelzebub, god of Ekron, take this wife's kirn, butter and milk, sap and substunce, without and within, so that she may die in misery, as she would have others to live.

The wife hearing the aforesaid sentence, clapt her hands, and called out another old woman as foolish as herself; who came crying after us to come back; bark we went where she made us eat heartily of butter and cheese; and earnestly pleaded with me to go and lift my cantrips, which I did, upon her promising never to deny a hungry traveller meat nor drink, whether be had money to pay for’t or not; and never to serve the poor with the old proverb, “Go home to your own parish,” but give them less or more as ye see them in need. This she faithfully promised to do while she lived, and with milk we drank to the cow’s good health and her own, not forgetting her husband’s and the bull’s, as the one was goodman of the house, and the other of the byre; and away we came in all haste, lest some of a more understanding