Page:Hudibras - Volume 2 (Butler, Nash, Bohn; 1859).djvu/97

Both might have evidence enough
To render neither halter-proof.^[1]
He thought it desperate to tarry, 115
And venture to be accessary;
But rather wisely slip his fetters,
And leave them for the Knight, his betters.
He call'd to mind th' unjust foul play
He would have offer'd him that day, 120
To make him curry his own hide,
Which no beast ever did beside,
Without all possible evasion,
But of the riding dispensation:^[2]
And therefore much about the hour 125
The Knight, for reasons told before,
Resolv'd to leave him to the fury
Of justice, and an unpack'd jury,
The Squire concurr'd t' abandon him,
And serve him in the self-same trim;^[3] 130
T' acquaint the lady what he'd done,
And what he meant to carry on;
What project 't was he went about
When Sidrophel and he fell out;

1. The mutual accusations of the Knight and Sidrophel, if established, might hang both of them. Halter-proof is to be in no danger from a halter, as musket-proof is to be in no danger from a musket: to render neither halter-proof is to leave both in danger of being hanged.
2. Ralpho considers that he should not have escaped the whipping intended for him by the Knight, if their dispute had not been interrupted by the riding-show, or skimmington.
3. The author has long had an eye to the selfishness and treachery of the leading parties, the Presbyterians and Independents. A few lines below he speaks more plainly:
   In which both dealt, as if they meant
   Their party saints to represent,
   Who never fail'd, upon their sharing
   In any prosperous arms-bearing,
   To lay themselves out to supplant
   Each other cousin-german saint.
   
   
   The reader will remember that Hudibras represents the Presbyterians, and Ralpho the the Independents: this scene therefore alludes to the manner in which the latter supplanted the former in the civil war.