d to change his purse. "Devil on't,
I--have--forgotten--Odsfish, where is my treasurer?" he exclaimed at
last.

"Your treasurer!" shrieked the landlord, who had watched Charles's
search, with twitching eyes. "Want your treasurer, do ye? Constable
Swallow'll find him for ye. Constable Swallow! I knew you were a rascal,
by your face."

Charles laughed.

This exasperated the landlord still further. He began to flutter about
the room aimlessly, bill in hand. He presented it to Charles and he
presented it to Nell, who would have none of it; while at intervals he
called loudly for the constable.

"Peace, my man," entreated Nell; "be still for mercy's sake."

"Good lack, my lady," pleaded the landlord, in despair, "good lack, but
you would not see a poor man robbed by a vagabond, would ye? Constable
Swallow!"

The situation was growing serious indeed. The King was mirthful still,
but Nell was fearful.

"Nell, have you no money to stop this heathen's mouth?" he finally
ejaculated, as he caught up his bonnet and tossed it jauntily upon his
head.

"Not a farthing," replied she, sharply. "I was invited to sup, not pay
the bill."

"If the King knew this rascal," yelled the landlord at the top of his
voice, pointing to Charles, "he would be behind the bars long ago."

This was too much for his Majesty, who broke into the merriest of
laughs.

"Verily, I believe you," he admitted. Then he fell to laughing again,
almost rolling off the bench in his glee.

"Master Constable," wildly repeated the landlord, at the kitchen-door.
"Let my new wife alone; they are making off with the house."

Nell was filled with consternation.

"He'll raise the neighbourhood, Sire," she whispered to Charles. "Have
you no money to stop this heathen's mouth?"

"Not even holes in my pockets," calmly replied the Merry Monarch.

"Odsfish, what company am I got into!" sighed Nell. She ran to the
landlord and seized his arm in her endeavour to quiet him.

The landlord, however, was beside himself. He stood at the kitchen-door
gesticulating ferociously and still shouting at the top of his voice:
"Constable Swallow! Help, help; thieves; Constable Swallow!"

Swallow staggered into the room with all his dignity aboard. Tankard in
hand, he made a dive for the table, and catching it firmly, surveyed the
scene.

Nell turned to her lover for protection.

"Murder, hic!" ejaculated the constable. "Thieves! What's the
row?--Hic!"

"Arrest this bl