"Placetne, domine?"

"Placet!" squeaked Jack, who thought himself at the last gasp, and
gulped down full three-quarters of the goblet which Cary held to his
lips.

"Ugh--Ah--Puh! Mercy on us! It tastes mighty like wine!"

"A proof, my virtuous brother," said Frank, "first, of thy
abstemiousness, which has thus forgotten what wine tastes like; and
next, of thy pure and heroical affection, by which thy carnal senses
being exalted to a higher and supra-lunar sphere, like those Platonical
daemonizomenoi and enthusiazomenoi (of whom Jamblichus says that they
were insensible to wounds and flame, and much more, therefore, to evil
savors), doth make even the most nauseous draught redolent of that
celestial fragrance, which proceeding, O Jack! from thine own inward
virtue, assimilates by sympathy even outward accidents unto its own
harmony and melody; for fragrance is, as has been said well, the song
of flowers, and sweetness, the music of apples--Ahem! Go in peace, thou
hast conquered!"

"Put him out of the door, Will," said Amyas, "or he will swoon on our
hands."

"Give him some sack," said Frank.

"Not a blessed drop of yours, sir," said Jack. "I like good wine as well
as any man on earth, and see as little of it; but not a drop of
yours, sirs, after your frumps and flouts about hanging-on and
trencher-scraping. When I first began to love her, I bid good-bye to all
dirty tricks; for I had some one then for whom to keep myself clean."

And so Jack was sent home, with a pint of good red Alicant wine in him
(more, poor fellow, than he had tasted at once in his life before);
while the rest, in high glee with themselves and the rest of the world,
relighted the candles, had a right merry evening, and parted like good
friends and sensible gentlemen of devon, thinking (all except Frank)
Jack Brimblecombe and his vow the merriest jest they had heard for
many a day. After which they all departed: Amyas and Cary to Winter's
squadron; Frank (as soon as he could travel) to the Court again;
and with him young Basset, whose father Sir Arthur, being in London,
procured for him a page's place in Leicester's household. Fortescue and
Chicester went to their brothers in Dublin; St. Leger to his uncle
the Marshal of Munster; Coffin joined Champernoun and Norris in the
Netherlands; and so the Brotherhood of the Rose was scattered far and
wide, and Mistress Salterne was left alone with her looking-glass.

CHAPTER IX

HOW AMYAS