e sure there must be secrets among 'em. [_Drinks_.

_Scrub_. Secrets! ay, friend.--I wish I had a friend!

_Arch_. Am not I your friend? come, you and I will
sworn brothers.

_Scrub_. Shall we?

_Arch_.. From this minute. Give me a kiss:--and no
brother Scrub--

_Scrub_. And now, brother Martin, I will tell you a secret
that will make your hair stand on end. You must
know that I am consumedly in love.

_Arch_. That's a terrible secret, that's the truth on't

_Scrub_. That jade, Gipsy, that was with us just now in
the cellar, is the arrantest whore that ever wore a
petticoat; and I 'm dying for love of her.

_Arch_. Ha! ha! ha!--Are you in love with her person
her virtue, brother Scrub?

_Scrub_. I should like virtue best, because it is more
durable than beauty: for virtue holds good with
some women long, and many a day after they have
lost it.

_Arch_. In the country, I grant ye, where no woman's
virtue is lost, till a bastard be found.

_Scrub_. Ay, could I bring her to a bastard, I should have
her all to myself; but I dare not put it upon, the
lay, for fear of being sent for a soldier. Pray
brother, how do you gentlemen in London like this
same Pressing Act?

_Arch_. Very ill, brother Scrub; 'tis the worst that ever
was made for us. Formerly I remember the good
days, when we could dun our masters for our wage
and if they refused to pay us, we could have a
warrant to carry 'em before a Justice: but now if
we talk of eating, they have a warrant for us, and
carry us before three Justices.

_Scrub_. And to be sure we go, if we talk of eating; for
the Justices won't give their own servants a bad
example. Now this is my misfortune--I dare not
speak in the house, while that jade Gipsy dings
about like a fury.---Once I had the better end of the
staff.

_Arch_. And how comes the change now?

_Scrub_. Why, the mother of all this mischief is a priest.

_Arch_. A priest!

_Scrub_. Ay, a damned son of a whore of Babylon, that
came over hither to say grace to the French officers,
and eat up our provisions. There's not a day goes
over his head without a dinner or supper in this house.

_Arch_. How came he so familiar in the family? {81}

_Scrub_. Because he speaks English as if he had lived
here all his life, and tells lies as if he had been a
traveller from his cradle.

_Arch_. And this priest, I'm afraid, has converted the
affections of your Gipsy?

_Scrub_. Converted! ay, a