found watching, even as the Holy Text hath it, Invenientur vigilantes. And the wealthy Jew her father, Isaac of York, having prayed of me letters in his behalf, I gave him these, earnestly advising that you do hold the damsel to ransom, seeing he will pay you from his bags as much as may find fifty damsels upon safer terms, whereof I trust to have my part when we make merry together, as true brothers, not forgetting the wine-cup. For what saith the text, Vinum laetificat cor hominis; and again, Rex delectabitur pulchritudine tua.
"Till which merry meeting, we wish you farewell. Given from this den of thieves, about the hour of mattins,
"Postscriptum. Truly your golden chain hath
not long abidden with me, and will now sustain,
around the neck of an outlaw deer-stealer, the
whistle where with he calleth on his hounds."
"What sayest thou to this, Conrade?" said
the Grand Master—"Den of thieves! and a fit
