Page:Waverley Novels, vol. 22 (1831).djvu/207

 court? But let Richard Sludge alone; I have not been cock of the roost here for nothing. I will make sharp wit mend foul feature.”

“But what will your grandam say, and your tutor, Dominie Holiday?”

“E’en what they like,” replied Dickie; “the one has her chickens to reckon, and the other has his boys to whip. I would have given them the candle to hold long since, and shown this trumpery hamlet a fair pair of heels, but that Dominie promises I should go with him to bear share in the next pageant he is to set forth, and they say there are to be great revels shortly.”

“And whereabout are they to be held, my little friend?” said Tressilian.

“O, at some castle far in the north,” answered his guide—“a world’s breadth from Berkshire. But our old Dominie holds that they cannot go forward without him; and it may be he is right, for he has put in order many a fair pageant. He is not half the fool you would take him for, when he gets to work he understands; and so he can spout verses like a play-actor, when, God wot, if you set him to steal a goose’s egg, he would be drubbed by the gander.”

“And you are to play a part in his next show?” said Tressilian, somewhat interested by the boy’s boldness of conversation, and shrewd estimate of character.

“In faith,” said Richard Sludge, in answer, “he hath so promised me; and if he break his word, it will be the worse for him; for let me take the bit