Page:Witty and entertaining exploits of George Buchanan (10).pdf/8

 wherein George got the better of him, and the Biſhop found himſelf he was wrong; then one of the company addreſſed himſelf to George in theſe words, thou Scot, ſaid he, ought not to have left thy country; For what? ſays George; Becauſe thou haſt brought all the knowledge of it along with thee. No, no, ſays George, the ſhepherds in Scotland will argument with any Biſhop in England, and exceed them mighty far in knowledge. The Engliſh clergy took this as a great affront, and ſeveral nobleman affirmed it to be as George had ſaid. Wagers were laid thereon, and three of the Engliſh clergy were choſen and ſent away to Scotland to diſpute it with the ſhepherds, accompanied with ſeveral gentlemen, who were to bear witneſs of what they heard paſs between them. Now George knowing what way they were gone, took another road, and came into the Scots bounds before then, made up his acquaintance with a ſhepherd at the border, whoſe paſture lay hard by the way ſide where the clergymen were to paſs; and here George mounted himſelf in a ſhepherd's dreſs, and when he ſaw the clergymen coming, he conveyed his flock to the road ſide, where he fell a ſinging a latin ſong; and ſo, to begin the quarrel, one of them aſked him, in French, What o'clock it was? To which he anſwered in Hebrew, It is directly about the time of the day it was yeſterday at this time. Another aſked him in Greek, What countryman he was? To which he anſwered in Flemiſh, If you knew that, you would be as wiſe as myſelf. The third aſked him in Dutch, Where was you educate? To which he anſwered in Earſe, herding my ſheep between this and Lochaber. This they begged him to explain in English, which he accordingly did. Now, ſaid they one to another, we need not go any farther: What, ſays George, are you butchers? I'll ſell you a few ſheep. To this they made no anſwer, but went away ſhamefully, ſwearing that the Scots had gone through all the nations in the world to learn their language, or the devil lad taught them it, for we have no ſhare here but ſhame.

After that George had ended the diſpute with the Engliſh clergyman, he ſtript off his ſhepherd's dreſs, and up through England with all the haſte imaginable, ſo that he arrived at the place from whence they ſet out, three days before them, and went every day aſking if they were come, ſo that he might not be ſuſpected. Now, upon their arrival, all that were conserved in the matter, and many more, to hear what