Page:History of the king and the cobbler.pdf/23

 to the king, and if you are hanged according to law, you muſt take it for your pains'

Joan, hearing the talk of hanging, fell upon her knees, crying, Good Sir King, pray Sir King, don't hang my poor Criſpin I beſeech you, he is an honeſt man and has but one fault.' 'What fault is that?' quoth the king. 'May it pleaſe your grace,' quoth Joan, 'he will not be ruled by his wife, but is always ready to run away like a monkey after any man that will give him drink.' 'That's neither here or there, ſaid the king, he muſt die: nevertheleſs, as you have begged that he may not be hanged, upon the word of a king he ſhall not, but I will allow him the favour to chooſe his own death.

'Why then,' quoth the cobbler, let me die the death of my father and great grandfather.' 'How was that?' quoth the king.' 'It was on a death-bed and in a good old age.' At which choice of the cobbler's the king, queen, & the nobles laughed very heartily, and Criſpin and his wife, by the King's command, were locked up in a room half an hour, there to attend the king's further pleaſure.

No ſooner were they again confined, but the cobbler with a trembling voice, ſaid, 'Sweet wife, I wonder what the king intends to do with us now.' Quoth Joan, 'Pray thee be of comfort, I am perſuaded that the king is the tanner, and the queen is the kinswoman.' 'Adsfoot, have a care of what you ſay, I ſhall have you ſpeak treaſon, and then we ſhall both be hanged iith after all.' 'Fear not husband, I can ſee as far into a milſtone as he that picks it, I am ſure tho they changed their apparel, they would not change their complexion. Whilſt they were in this diſpute, the king and queen dreſſed in their former diſguiſe, entered the room, attended by nobles and maids of honour; at which the king ſaid, Criſpin, ſince you