SAMPSON STOCKFISH THE FRUITERER.

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beatings of his heart. He had fought with wondrous coolness and apparent enjoyment, but had, in reality, suffered all the agonies which a keen intellect must always experience in an encounter with serious physical danger.

Skogan was carried away to be plastered. It is to be hoped his poem would keep till the next birthday.

By the time Sir Thomas Mowbray came out with the rest of the courtiers, he found his page fully equipped, and ready to accompany him to the tiltyard in Smithfield.

When they reached the ground, as Jack was struggling with a crowd of men at arms to get through the narrow gateway, he felt his sleeve pulled from behind, and an eager voice cried

"Jack, Jack! don't go in yet. Look here; I've fought too!"

He looked round and saw Master Robert Shallow in a high state of excitement, dragging a man by the collar, whose head was bound with a cloth streaming with blood.

'Look, Jack! mind, say you saw it. Sampson Stockfish his name is—he's a fruiterer-I made him come here to show his broken head, or I threatened him with another."

"Another head?"

"I pray you let me go, sir," whined the wounded man; me sore enough for one day."

you have hurt

"There! you hear him confess," crowed the delighted Shallow. "Out of the way, thou cobbler's end," said an authoritative voice. dost thou here among the Marshal's men?"

"What

And Prince John of Gaunt, striding through the gateway, laid his sheathed sword across Master Shallow's head-reducing that warlike gentleman to the same condition as his blood-stained victim.

Master Shallow was led away howling, by the magnanimous Stock fish. Why what eelskin had'st thou got hold of there, Jack?" inquired the prince, looking after the discomfited champion.

"A Gloucestershire lamprey," answered Jack. "Your highness would have done well to kill him, for truly he puts your title in danger."

"How so?"

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Why your highness is no more Gaunt than he is. He fairly beats your name."

When Master Sampson Stockfish and his conqueror were alone, the former very considerately took the bandage from his own forehead-previously wiping off the superfluous sheep's blood-and bound it round his employer's head, as having more need of it. He then requested to be paid, as he wanted to get home.

"True; a silver mark it was, I think," said Shallow, who was not much hurt, handing the sum he named.

"A silver mark. Go hang! I'll have forty."

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Why it was thine own plan and bargain.”

"All's one for that. I must have forty if I'm to keep counsel. If not, out comes the whole tale."

Master Shallow compromised the matter for twenty marks on the present occasion, and, by occasional subsequent fees, was enabled to bind Stockfish over to permanent silence. He boasted incessantly of his victory, which he eventually led himself to believe he had gained. Moreover, he would have considered any price cheap for an adventure which led to his making the acquaintance of that renowned prince, John of Gaunt, with whom he was wont to declare he had enjoyed a most interesting conversation upon the political and theological questions of the day.

BOOK THE SECOND.

1381.

I.

HOW MR. JOHN FALSTAFF CAME INTO HIS PROPERTY, AND WAS KNIGHTED BY KING RICHARD THE SECOND.

THERE is nothing in the latter and more publicly known portion of Sir John Falstaff's career to make it surprising that he should have approached the middle period of life without having acquired greater nominal celebrity than that afforded by the registers of retail traders. Such greatness as he afterwards attained to, having for its foundation a profound knowledge of mankind, must needs absorb the study of a long life to develop its Aloetic splendours.

Therefore, having clearly established my hero's antecedents, and seen him launched on the sea of life, I might fairly take leave of him for many years to come, as of an adventurous emigrant crossing the ocean, with the perils of whose long voyage we have nothing to do, and who will only claim more attention when he shall have cleared his forest and founded his colony on the other side of the world.

But it must not be forgotten that we are treating of a knight and a gentleman of the olden time. There are two events in the life of such a person which, in justice to chivalry and noble birth, the historian may not pass over: these are, 1. His accession to the inheritance of his ancestors. 2. The time and manner of his receiving the dignity of knighthood.

Sir Gilbert Falstaff, Knight, was gathered to his fathers early in the year 1381. The tidings of the melancholy event were conveyed to his son and successor, then residing in the English town of Calais, by a faithful attendant returning from England, whither he had been despatched on his young master's business.

Master John Falstaff, at this period, occupied apartments in one of His Majesty's fortresses in Calais, in favour of which he had vacated an official suite in the Government-house of the same town. Here, for some months, he had discharged the duties of an onerous but subordinate post, wholly unsuited to his peculiar genius. Even at that early period the Government of England

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