Page:Hudibras - Volume 1 (Butler, Nash, Bohn; 1859).djvu/307

CANTO II.] Have not the handmaids of the city Chose of their members a committee, For raising of a common purse Out of their wages, to raise horse? And do they not as triers sit To judge what officers are fit? Have theyAt that an egg let fly, Hit him directly o'er the eye, And running down his cheek, besmear'd, With orange-tawny slime, his beard; But beard and slime be'ng of one hue, The wound the less appear'd in view. Then he that on the panniers rode Let fly on th' other side a load, And quickly charg'd again, gave fully, In Ralpho's face, another volley. The Knight was startled with the smell, And for his sword began to feel; And Ralpho, smother'd with the sink, Grasp'd his, when one that bore a link, O' the sudden clapp'd his flaming cudgel. Like linstock, to the horse's touch-hole; And straight another, with his flambeau, Gave Ralpho, o'er the eyes, a damn'd blow. The beasts began to kick and fling, And forc'd the rout to make a ring;