Of Martin Swart and all his merry men."]

"True, good mine host--the day was long talked of; but if you sing so
loud, you will awake more listeners than I care to commit my confidence
unto."

"I crave pardon, my worshipful guest," said mine host, "I was oblivious.
When an old song comes across us merry old knights of the spigot, it
runs away with our discretion."

"Well, mine host, my grandfather, like some other Cornishmen, kept a
warm affection to the House of York, and espoused the quarrel of this
Simnel, assuming the title of Earl of Warwick, as the county afterwards,
in great numbers, countenanced the cause of Perkin Warbeck, calling
himself the Duke of York. My grandsire joined Simnel's standard, and was
taken fighting desperately at Stoke, where most of the leaders of that
unhappy army were slain in their harness. The good knight to whom he
rendered himself, Sir Roger Robsart, protected him from the immediate
vengeance of the king, and dismissed him without ransom. But he was
unable to guard him from other penalties of his rashness, being the
heavy fines by which he was impoverished, according to Henry's mode of
weakening his enemies. The good knight did what he might to mitigate the
distresses of my ancestor; and their friendship became so strict, that
my father was bred up as the sworn brother and intimate of the present
Sir Hugh Robsart, the only son of Sir Roger, and the heir of his honest,
and generous, and hospitable temper, though not equal to him in martial
achievements."

"I have heard of good Sir Hugh Robsart," interrupted the host, "many a
time and oft; his huntsman and sworn servant, Will Badger, hath spoken
of him an hundred times in this very house. A jovial knight he is,
and hath loved hospitality and open housekeeping more than the present
fashion, which lays as much gold lace on the seams of a doublet as would
feed a dozen of tall fellows with beef and ale for a twelvemonth, and
let them have their evening at the alehouse once a week, to do good to
the publican."

"If you have seen Will Badger, mine host," said Tressilian, "you have
heard enough of Sir Hugh Robsart; and therefore I will but say, that the
hospitality you boast of hath proved somewhat detrimental to the estate
of his family, which is perhaps of the less consequence, as he has but
one daughter to whom to bequeath it. And here begins my share in the
tale. Upon my father's death, now several years since, the good Sir Hugh