will interpose in this matter, and hasten the wedding. Kate Willow is a witty, mischievous wench in the neighborhood, who was a beauty; and makes me hope I shall see the perverse widow in her condition. She was so flippant in her answers to all the honest fellows that came near her, and so very vain of her beauty, that she has valued herself upon her charms till they have ceased.She therefore now makes it her business to prevent other young women from being more discreet than she was herself: however, the saucy thing said the other day well enough, Sir Roger and must make a match, for we are both despised by those we loved.' The hussy has a great deal of power wherever she comes, and has her share of cunning. " some regard for me, if it had not been for that watchful animal her confidant. "Of all persons under the sun" (continued he, calling me by my name), "be sure to set a mark upon confidants: they are of all people the most impertinent. What is most pleasant to observe in them is, that they assume to themselves the merit of persons whom they have in their custody. Orestilla is a great fortune, and in wonderful danger of surprises, therefore full of suspicious of the feast indifferent thing, particularly careful of new acquaintance, and of growing too familiar with the old. Thermista, her favorite woman, is every whit as careful of whom she speaks to, and what she says. Let the ward be a beauty, her confidant shall treat you with an air of distance; let her be a fortune, and she assumes the suspicious beha- 'However, when I reflect upon this woman, I vior of her friend and patroness. Thus it is that do not know whether in the main I am the worse very many of our unmarried women of distinction for having loved her: whenever she is recalled to are to all intents and purposes married, except the my imagination, my youth returns, and I feel a consideration of different sexes. They are directly forgotten warmth in my veins. This affliction in under the conduct of their whisperer; and think my life has streaked all my conduct with a softthey are in a state of freedom, while they can ness, of which I should otherwise have been incaprate with one of these attendants of all men in pable. It is owing, perhaps, to this dear image in general, and still avoid the man they most like. my heart that I am apt to relent, that I easily forYou do not see one heiress in a hundred whose give, and that many desirable things are grown fate does not turn upon this circumstance of choos-into my temper, which I should not have arrived ing a confidant. Thus it is that the lady is ad- at by better motives than the thought of being dressed to, presented, and flattered only by proxy, one day hers. I am pretty well satisfied such a in her woman. In my case, how is it possible passion as I have had is never well cured; and that" Sir Roger was proceeding in his ha- between you and me, I am often apt to imagine it rangue, when we heard the voice of one speaking has had some whimsical effect upon my brain: very importunately, and repeating these words, for I frequently find, that in my most serious dis"What, not one smile?" We followed the sound course I let fall some comical familiarity of speech till we came to a close thicket, on the other side of or odd phrase that makes the company laugh. which we saw a young woman sitting as it were However, I cannot but allow she is a most excelin a personated sullenness just over a transparent lent woman. When she is in the country, I warfountain. Opposite to her stood Mr. William, Sir rant she does not run into dairies, but reads upon Roger's master of the game. The knight whis- the nature of plants: she has a glass hive, and pered me, "Hist, these are lovers." The hunts- comes into the garden out of books to see them man looking earnestly at the shadow of the young work, and observe the policies of their commonmaiden in the stream-"O thou dear picture, if wealth. She understands everything. I would thou couldst remain there in the absence of that give ten pounds to hear her argue with my friend fair creature whom you represent in the water, Sir Andrew Freeport about trade. No, no, for all how willingly could I stand here satisfied forever, she looks so innocent as it were, take my word for without troubling my dear Betty herself with any it she is no fool.”—T. mention of her unfortunate William, whom she is angry with! But alas! when she pleases to be gone, thou wilt also vanish-yet let me talk to thee while thou dost stay. Tell my dearest Betty thou dost not more depend upon her, than does her William; her absence will make away with me as well as thee. If she offers to remove thee, I will jump into these waves to lay hold on theeherself, her own dear person, I must never embrace again. Still do you hear me without one smile-It is too much to bear." He had no soon-try, are upon the different manners of the people er spoken these words, but he made an offer of whom he meets with in those two different scenes throwing himself into the water: at which his of life. By manners I do not mean morals, but mistress started up, and at the next instant he behavior and good-breeding, as they show themjumped across the fountain, and met her in an em- selves in the town and in the country. brace. She, half recovering from her fright, said in the most charming voice imaginable, and with a tone of complaint, "I thought how well you would drown yourself. No, no, you will not drown yourself till you have taken your leave of Susan Holiday." The huntsman, with a tenderness that spoke the most passionate love, and with his cheek close to hers, whispered the softest vows of fidelity in her ear, and cried, "Do not, my dear, believe a word Kate Willow says; she is spiteful, and makes stories, because she loves to hear me talk to herself for your sake." "Look you there," quoth Sir Roger, "do you see there, all mischief comes from confidants! But let us not inter-straint in them, and have therefore thrown most rupt them; the maid is honest, and the man dare of them aside. Conversation, like the Romish not be otherwise, for he knows I loved her father: I religion, was so encumbered with show and cere No. 119.] TUESDAY, JULY 17, 1711. Urbem quam dicunt Roman, Meliboe, putavi I thought resembled this our humble town.-WARTON. THE first and most obvious reflections which arise in a man who changes the city for the coun And here in the first place I must observe a very great revolution that has happened in this article of good-breeding. Several obliging deferences, condescensions, and submissions, with many outward forms and ceremonies that accompany them, were first of all brought up among the politer part of mankind, who lived in courts and cities, and distinguished themselves from the rustic part of the species (who on all occasions acted bluntly and naturally) by such a mutual complaisance and intercourse of civilities. These forms of conversation by degrees multiplied and grew troublesome; the modish world found too great a con i mony, that it stood in need of a reformation to retrench its superfluities, and restore it to its natural good sense and beauty. At present, therefore, an unconstrained carriage, and a certain openness of behavior, are the height of goodbreeding. The fashionable world is grown free and easy; our manners sit more loosely upon us. Nothing is so modish as an agreeable negligence. In a word, good-breeding shows itself most, where to an ordinary eye it appears the least. If after this we look on the people of mode in the country, we find in them the manners of the last age. They have no sooner fetched themselves up to the fashions of the polite world, but the town has dropped them, and are nearer to the first state of nature, than to those refinements which formerly reigned in the court, and still prevailed in the country. One may now know a man that never conversed in the world, by his excess of good-breeding. A polite country esquire shall make you as many bows in half an hour, as would serve a courtier for a week. There is infinitely more to do about place and precedency in a meeting of justices' wives, than in an assembly of duchesses. will come too late to them, and they wil thought a parcel of lewd clowns, while they cy themselves talking together like men of and pleasure. This infamous piece of good-breeding, which reigns among the coxcombs of the town, has not yet made its way into the country: and as it is impossible for such an irrational way of conversation to last long among a people that make any profession of religion, or show of modesty, if the country gentlemen get into it, they will certaiuly be left in the lurch. Their good-breeding As the two points of good-breeding, whi have hitherto insisted upon, regard behavior conversation, there is a third which turns dress. In this, too, the country are very behindhand. The rural beaux are not yet go of the fashion that took place at the time o revolution, but ride about the country in red and laced hats, while the women in many are still trying to outvie one another in the h of their head-dresses. But a friend of mine, who is now upor western circuit, having promised to give n account of the several modes and fashions prevail in the different parts of the nation thr which he passes, I shall defer the enlarging this last topic till I have received a letter him, which I expect every post.-L. No. 120.] WEDNESDAY, JULY 18, 17 My friend Sir Roger is very often merry me upon my passing so much of my time a his poultry. He has caught me twice or looking after a bird's nest, and several time ting an hour or two together near a hen and c ens. He tells me he believes I am perso acquainted with every fowl about his house; such a particular cock my favorite; and frequ complains that his ducks and geese have m my company than himself. I must confess I am infinitely delighted those speculations of nature which are to be in a country life; and as my reading has much lain among books of natural history, not forbear recollecting upon this occasio several remarks which I have met with in au and comparing them with what falls unde own observation: the arguments for Provi drawn from the natural history of animals in my opinion demonstrative. The make of every kind of animal is dif from that of every other kind; and yet th not the least turn in the muscles or twist i fibers of any one, which does not render more proper for that particular animal's w life than any other cast or texture of them have been. This rural politeness is very troublesome to a man of my temper, who generally take the chair that is next me, and walk first or last, in the front or in the rear, as chance directs. I have known my friend Sir Roger's dinner almost cold before the company could adjust the ceremonial, and be prevailed upon to sit down; and have heartily pitied my old friend, when I have seen him forced to pick and cull his guests, as they sat at the several parts of his table, that he might drink their healths according to their respective ranks and qualities. Honest Will Wimble, who I should have thought had been altogether uninfected with ceremony, gives me abundance of trouble in this particular. Though he has been fishing all the morning, he will not help himself at dinner till I am served. When we are going out of the hall, he runs behind and last night as we were walking into the fields, stopped short at a stile until I came up to it, and upon my making signs to him to get over, told me with a serious smile, that sure I believed they had no manners in the country. me; There has happened another revolution in the point of good-breeding, which relates to the conversation among men of mode, and which I cannot but look upon as very extraordinary. It was certainly one of the first distinctions of a wellbred man to express everything that had the most remote appearance of being obscene, in modest terms and distant phrases; while the clown, who had no such delicacy of conception and expression, clothed his ideas in those plain, homely terms that are the most obvious and natural. This kind of good manners was perhaps carried to an excess, so as to make conversation too stiff, formal, and precise: for which reason (as hypocrisy in one age is generally succeeded by atheism in another) conversation is in a great measure relapsed into the first extreme; so that at present sev-leaving a posterity. Some creatures cast eral of our men of the town, and particularly those eggs as chance directs them, and think of who have been polished in France, make use of the no farther; as insects and several kinds of most coarse, uncivilized words in our language, Others, of a nicer frame, find out proper be and utter themselves often in such a manner as a deposit them in, and there leave them; a clown would blush to hear. serpent, the crocodile, and ostrich others their eggs and tend the birth till it is lia shift for itself. The most violent appetites in all creature lust and hunger. The first is a perpetua upon them to propagate their kind; the lat preserve themselves. It is astonishing to consider the differe grees of care that descend from the parent young, so far as it is absolutely necessary What can we call the principle which d every different kind of bird to observe a parti plan in the structure of its nest, and direc the same species to work after the same mode cannot be imitation; for though you hatch a under a hen, and never let it see any of the Is it not remarkable that the same temper of weather, which raises this genial warmth in animals, should cover the trees with leaves, and the fields with grass, for their security and concealment and produce such infinite swarms of insects for the support and sustenance of their respective broods? of its own kind, the nest it makes shall be the | such a manner than she can cover them, what care same, to the laying of a stick, with all the other does she take in turning them frequently, that all nests of the same species. It cannot be reason; parts may partake of the vital warmth when she for were animals indued with it to as great a de- leaves them, to provide for her necessary sustegree as man, their buildings would be as different nance, how punctually does she return before they as ours, according to the different conveniences have time to cool, and become incapable of prothat they would propose to themselves. ducing an animal! In the summer you see her giving herself greater freedoms, and quitting her care for above two hours together; but in winter, when the rigor of the season would chill the principles of life, and destroy the young one, she grows more assiduous in her attendance, and stays away but half the time. When the birth approaches, with how much nicety and attention does she help the chick to break its prison! not to take notice of her covering it from the injuries of the weather, providing it proper nourishment, and teaching it to help itself; not to mention her forsaking the nest, if after the usual time of reckIoning the young one does not make its appearance. A chemical operation could not be followed with greater art or diligence, than is seen in the hatching of a chick; though there are many birds that show an infinitely greater sagacity in all the forementioned particulars. Is it not wonderful that the love of the parent should be so violent while it lasts, and that it should last no longer than is necessary for the preservation of the young? The violence of this natural love is exemplified by a very barbarous experiment; which shall quote at length, as I find it in an excellent author, and hope my readers will pardon the mentioning such an instance of cruelty; because there is nothing can so effectually show the strength of that principle in animals of which I am here speaking. "A person, who was well skilled in But at the same time the hen, that has all this dissections, opened a bitch, and as she lay in the seeming ingenuity (which is indeed absolutely most exquisite tortures, offered her one of her necessary for the propagation of the species), young puppies, which she immediately fell a lick- considered in other respects, is without the least ing; and for the time seemed insensible of her glimmering of thought or common sense. She misown pain. On the removal, she kept her eye fixed takes a piece of chalk for an egg, and sits upon it on it, and began a wailing sort of cry, which in the same manner. She is insensible of any inseemed rather to proceed from the loss of her crease or diminution in the number of those she young one, than the sense of her own torments."lays. She does not distinguish between her own But notwithstanding this natural love in brutes and those of another species; and when the birth is much more violent and intense than in rational appears of never so different a bird, will cherish creatures, Providence has taken care that it should it for her own. In all these circumstances, which be no longer troublesome to the parent than it is do not carry an immediate regard to the subsistuseful to the young for so soon as the wants of ence of herself or her species, she is a very idiot. the latter cease, the mother withdraws her fondness, and leaves them to provide for themselves; and what is a very remarkable circumstance in this part of instinct, we find that the love of the parent may be lengthened beyond its usual time, if the preservation of the species requires it; as we may see in birds that drive away their young as soon as they are able to get their livelihood, but continue to feed them if they are tied to the nest, or confined within a cage, or by any other means appear to be out of a condition of supplying their own necessities. There is not, in my opinion, anything more mysterious in nature than this instinct in animals, which thus rises above reason, and falls infinitely short of it. It cannot be accounted for by any properties in matter, and at the same time works after so odd a manner, that one cannot think it the faculty of an intellectual being. For my own part, I look upon it as upon the principle of gravitation in bodies, which is not to be explained by any known qualities inherent in the bodies themselves, nor from the laws of mechanism, but, according to the best notions of the greatest philosophers, is an immediate impression from the first mover, and the divine energy acting on the creatures.-L. This natural love is not observed in animals to ascend from the young to the parent, which is not at all necessary for the continuance of the species; nor indeed in reasonable creatures does it rise in any proportion, as it spreads itself downward; for in all family affection we find protection granted and favors bestowed, are greater motives to love and tenderness, than safety, benefits, or life received. No. 121.] THURSDAY, JULY 19, 1711. As I was walking this morning in the great yard that belongs to my friend's country house, I was wonderfully pleased to see the different workings of instinct in a hen followed by a brood of ducks. The young, upon the sight of a pond, immediately ran into it; while the stepmother, with all imaginary anxiety, hovered about the borders of it, to call them out of an element that appeared to her so dangerous and destructive. As the different principle which acted in these different animals cannot be termed reason, so when we call it instinct, we mean something we have no knowledge of. To me, as I hinted in my last paper, it seems the immediate direction of Providence, and such an operation of the Supreme a nest in places unfrequented, and free from noise | Being as that which determines all the portions of and disturbance! when she has laid her eggs in A modern philo With what caution does the hen provide herself matter to their proper centers. One would wonder to hear skeptical men disputing for the reason of animals, and telling us it is only our pride and prejudices that will not allow them the use of that faculty. Reason shows itself in all occurrences of life; whereas the brute makes no discovery of such a talent, but in what immediately regards his own preservation or the continuance of his species.Animals in their generation are wiser than the sons of men; but their wisdom is confined to a few particulars, and lies in a very narrow compass. Take a brute out of his instinct, and you find him wholly deprived of understanding. To use an instance that comes often under observation: sopher, quoted by Monsieur Bayle in his learned been before them. where chance has once placed it, and there rece the afflux of colder or warmer, clean or foul war as it happens to come to it." I shall add to this instance out of Mr. Loc another out of the learned Dr. More, who cites from Cardan, in relation to another animal wh Providence has left defective, but at the sa time has shown its wisdom in the formation that organ in which it seems chiefly to h failed. "What is more obvious and ordin than a mole; and yet what more palpable ar ment of Providence than she? the members of body are so exactly fitted to her nature and m ner of life for her dwelling being under gro where nothing is to be seen, nature has so obsc fitted her with eyes, that naturalists can sc agree whether she have any eyes at all, or no. for amends, what she is capable of for her defe and warning of danger, she has very emine conferred upon her; for she is exceeding quic hearing. And then her short tail and short 1 but broad fore-feet armed with short claws; see by the event to what purpose they are, she swiftly working herself under ground, and mak her way so fast in the earth as they that behol cannot but admire it. Her legs, therefore, are sh that she need dig no more than will serve mere thickness of her body; and her fore-feet broad, that she may scoop away much earth time; and little or no tail she has, because courses it not on the ground, like the rat or mo of whose kindred she is; but lives under earth, and is fain to dig herself a dwelling th And she making her way through so thick an ment, which will not yield easily, as the air or water, it had been dangerous to have draw long a train behind her; for her enemy might upon her rear, and fetch her out, before she completed or got full possession of her works I cannot forbear mentioning Mr. Boyle's mark upon this last creature, who I remer somewhere in his works observes, that the the mole be not totally blind (as it is comm thought) she has not sight enough to disting particular objects. Her eye is said to have bu humor in it, which is supposed to give her idea of light, but of nothing else, and is so for that this idea is probably painful to the ani Whenever she comes up into broad day, she m Nor must we here omit that great variety of arms with which nature has differently fortified the bodies of several kinds of animals-such as claws, hoofs, horns, teeth, and tusks, a tail, a sting, a trunk, or a proboscis. It is likewise ob-be in danger of being taken, unless she were served by naturalists, that it must be some hidden affected by a light striking upon her eye, principle, distinct from what we call reason, which immediately warning her to bury herself in instructs animals in the use of these their arms, proper element. More sight would be usele and teaches them to manage them to the best ad- her, as none at all might be fatal. vantage; because they naturally defend themselves with that part in which their strength lies, before the weapon be formed in it: as is remarkable in lambs, which, though they are bred within doors and never saw the actions of their own species, push at those who approach them with their foreheads, before the first budding of a horn appears. I have only instanced such animals as seen most imperfect works of nature; and if P dence shows itself even in the blemishes of t creatures, how much more does it discover i in the several endowments which it has varic bestowed upon such creatures as are more or finished and completed in their several facu according to the condition of life in which are posted. I shall add to these general observations an instance, which Mr. Locke has given us, of Providence even in the imperfections of a creature which seems the meanest and most despicable in the whole animal world. "We may," says he, "from the make of an oyster, or cockle, conclude, that it has not so many nor so quick senses as a man, or several other animals; nor if it had, would it, in that state and incapacity of transferring itself from one place to another, be bettered by them. What good would sight and hearing do to a creature that cannot move itself to or from the object, wherein at a distance it perceives good or evil? And would not quickness of sensation be an inconvenience to an animal that must be still I could wish our Royal Society would con a body of natural history, the best that coul gathered together from books and observat If the several writers among them took each particular species, and gave us a distinct acc of its origin, birth, and education; its pol hostilities, and alliances, with the frame and ture of its inward and outward parts, and pa ularly those that distinguish it from all other mals, with their peculiar aptitudes for the sta being in which Providence has placed the would be one of the best services their st could do mankind, and not a little redound t glory of the all-wise Contriver. But notwithstanding animals have nothing like the use of reason, we find in them all the lower parts of our nature, the passions and senses, in their greatest strength and perfection. And here it is worth our observation, that all beasts and birds of prey are wonderfully subject to anger, malice, revenge, and all the other violent passions that may animate them in search of their proper food as those that are incapable of defending themselves, or annoying others, or whose safety lies chiefly in their flight, are suspicious, fearful, and apprehensive of everything they see or hear; while others that are of assistance and use to man, have their natures softened with something mild and tractable, and by that means are qualified for a domestic life. In this case the passions generally correspond with the make of the body. We do not find the fury of a lion in so weak and defenseless an animal as a lamb: nor the meekness of a lamb in a creature so armed for battle and assault as the lion. In the same manner, we find that particular animals have a more or less exquisite sharpness and sagacity in those particular senses which most turn to their advantage, and in which their safety and welfare is the most concerned. It is true, such a natural history, after all the nest gentlemen so long for a trespass in breaking disquisitions of the learned, would be infinitely one of his hedges, till he was forced to sell the short and defective. Seas and deserts hide mil- ground it inclosed to defray the charges of the lions of animals from our observation. Innumer- prosecution. His father left him fourscore pounds able artifices and stratagems are acted in the a year; but he has cast and been cast so often, "howling wilderness" and in the " great deep," that he is not now worth thirty. I suppose he is that can never come to our knowledge. Beside going upon the old business of the willow-tree." that there are infinitely more species of creatures which are not to be seen without, nor indeed with, the help of the finest glasses, than of such as are bulky enough for the naked eye to take hold of. However, from the consideration of such animals as lie within the compass of our knowledge, we might easily form a conclusion of the rest; that the same variety of wisdom and goodness runs through the whole creation, and puts every creature in a condition to provide for its safety and subsistence in its proper station. As Sir Roger was giving me this account of Tom Touchy, Will Wimble and his two companions stopped short till he came up to them. After having paid their respects to Sir Roger, Will told him that Mr. Touchy and he must appeal to him upon a dispute that arose between them. Will, it seems, had been giving his fellowtraveler an account of his angling one day in such a hole; when Tom Touchy, instead of hearing out his story, told him that Mr. Such-a-one, if he pleased, might "take the law of him," for fishing in that part of the river. My friend Sir Roger heard them both upon a round trot; and after having paused some time, told them with the air of a man who would not give his judgment rashly, that "much might be said on both sides." They were neither of them dissatisfied with the knight's determination, because neither of them found himself in the wrong by it. Upon which we made the best of our way to the assizes. The court was sitting before Sir Roger came; but notwithstanding all the justices had taken their places upon the bench, they made room for the tation in the country took occasion to whisper in old knight at the head of them; who for his reputhe judge's ear, that he was glad his lordship had met with so much good weather in his circuit. I was listening to the proceedings of the court with much attention, and infinitely pleased with that great appearance of solemnity which so properly accompanies such a public administration of our laws; when, after about an hour's sitting, I observed, to my great surprise, in the midst of a trial, Sir Roger was getting up to speak. I was in some pain for him, until I found he had acquitted himself of two or three sentences with a look of much business and great intrepidity. Upon his first rising the court was hushed, and a general whisper ran among the country people, that Sir Roger "was up." The speech he made was so little to the purpose, that I shall not trouble my readers with an account of it; and I believe was not so much designed by the knight himself to inform the court, as to give him a figure in my eye, and keep up his credit in the country. Tully has given us an admirable sketch of natural history, in his second book concerning the Nature of the Gods; and that in a style so raised by metaphors and descriptions, that it lifts the subject above raillery and ridicule, which frequently fall on such nice observations when they pass through the hands of an ordinary writer.-L." No. 122.] FRIDAY, JULY 20, 1711. Comes Jucundus in via pro vehiculo est.-PUBL., Syr. Frag. An agreeable companion upon the road is as good as a coach. A MAN's first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart; his next, to escape the censures of the world. If the last interferes with the former, it ought to be entirely neglected; but otherwise there cannot be a greater satisfaction to an honest mind, than to see those approbations which it gives itself, seconded by the applauses of the public. A man is more sure of his conduct, when the verdict which he passes upon his own behavior is thus warranted and confirmed by the opinion of all that know him. My worthy friend Sir Roger is one of those who is not only at peace within himself, but beloved and esteemed by all about him. He receives a suitable tribute for his universal benevolence to mankind, in the returns of affection, and good-will which are paid him by every one that lives in his neighborhood. I lately met with two or three odd instances of that general respect which is shown to the good old knight. He would needs carry Will Wimble and myself with him to the county assizes. As we were upon the road, Will Wimble joined a couple of plain men who rode before us, and conversed with them for some time; during which my friend Sir Roger acquainted me with their characters. I was highly delighted when the court rose, to see the gentlemen of the country gathering about my old friend, and striving who should compliment him most; at the same time that the ordinary people gazed upon him at a distance, not a little admiring his courage, that he was not afraid to speak to the judge. The first of them," says he, "that has a spaniel by his side, is a yeoman of about a hundred pounds a-year, an honest man. He is just within the game-act, and qualified to kill a hare or a pheasant. He knocks down a dinner with his gun twice or thrice a week; and by that means lives much cheaper than those who have not so good an estate as himself. He would be a good neighbor if he did not destroy so many partridges. In short, he is a very sensible man-shoots flyingand has been several times foreman of the pettyjury. "The other that rides along with him is Tom Touchy, a fellow famous for taking the law' of everybody. There is not one in the town where he lives that he has not sued at a quarter-sessions. The rogue had once the impudence to go to law with the widow. His head is full of costs, dama-ceeded wholly from affection and good-will, he ges, and ejectments. He plagued a couple of ho- only told him that he had made him too high a In our return home we met with a very odd accident; which I cannot forbear relating, because it shows how desirous all who know Sir Roger are of giving him marks of their esteem. When we were arrived upon the verge of his estate, we stopped at a little inn, to rest ourselves and our horses. The man of the house had, it seems, been formerly a servant in the knight's family; and to do honor to his old master, had some time since, unknown to Sir Roger, put him up in a sign-post before the door; so that the knight's head hung out upon the road about a week before he himself knew anything of the matter. As soon as Sir Roger was acquainted with it, finding that his servant's indiscretion pro • |
