Page:The Chronicle of Clemendy.pdf/102

 spouting out scraps of drinking songs. Cor imbutum nectare volat ad superna, hiccoughs one; Nasonem post calices facile paeibopraeibo [sic] stutters the other; and then they began to quote all the most wanton pieces of Ovidius Naso they could remember, which were not very many, seeing they were too drunk. However they made shift to help one another through that naughty and amorous canticle 'Twas very hot, when at noonday; and then they began to discuss the beauties of certain ladies of their acquaintance, so you may judge what sort of a night they had been spending in the house where the lights never went out, for the porter was too deaf to hear the curfew, and the ladies and their friends were dancing, laughing, singing, and fiddling in such wise that they heard no noises save those of their own making. And being in this state of mind you will not wonder that in the dim twilight of dawn the two companions saw nothing of the Delver's preparations for their comfort, but went merrily on, and in the natural course of things fell one on top of the other into the pit, where they sustained a good many bruises against the sharp stones, and (it is said) quite dried up the pool of water at the bottom, being young gentlemen of a mighty warm complexion. Here they lay very quietly, not puzzling their heads about anything, but taking it easily and keeping still, until a servant opened the door an hour or two later, and saw his master and his friend waiting to be let in after the fashion I have described. In the meantime Griffith the Mole had gone into exile somewhere on the