Page:Witty and entertaining exploits of George Buchanan (10).pdf/11

 him and go directly: ſo in a ſhort time he went into the ſtable where the boy was, calling for his horſe, and mounting him with all the ſpeed be could, giving the boy a piece of money, ſaying, here, my boy, this is for your taking care of my horſe, I have paid for all I called for in the houſe, and off he goes. Now, about mid day, he alighted again at an inn to refreſh himſelf and his horſe, and there he chanced to be in company with his other landlord, where he was the night before, and charged him with the double reckoning, ſo George addreſſed himſelf to him as follows: Sir, ſays George, I do believe I was in your houſe yeſternight. O yes, Sir, I mind of you pretty well; and where was you laſt night? Laſt night! ſays George, I was in one of the fineſt inns, and the civileſt landlord I ever had in my life; they brought all things I ſtood in need of unto me without calling for it, and when I came off this morning, they charged me nothing, and I paid but ſixpence to the boy for dreſſing my horſe. Blood and wounds, ſaid the old fellow, then, I'll go there this night. Ay, ſays George, do; and mind this, when they aſk you what you will have for yourſelf and your horſe, anſwer nothing, but that you will, ſir. Now George ſmiled within himſelf, to think how he had got the one extortioner to take amends of the other. So the foreſaid innkeeper rode that might until many people of the inn were gone to bed before he came in. No ſooner was he alighted from his horſe, than the boy aſked him, What ſhall I give to your horſe, maſter? to which he anſwered, What you will, boy. The boy hearing this, he runs away (leaving him and his horſe to ſtand at the door) up ſtairs to his maſter's room, crying, Maſter, Maſter, What you will is come again! O the rogue, cries he, where is he? I'll cane him, I'll what you will him by and by; and to him he runs with his cane, licks and kicks him until he is ſcarce able to mount his horſe, and would give him no entertainment there; which cauſed him to ride the whole length of a cold winter night, after he had got his bones all beat and bruiſed, So the one purſued the other as a murderer: and his defence was, that he was a cheat and a ſcorner of his houſe, until the truth was found out.

About this time the French king ſent and demanded from the king of England three men of different qualities; the one was to be a mighty ſtrong man, the other a very wiſe wan, and the third a great fool: ſo that he might have none