d the women simpered; but we stood four square, my friend
and I, discussing, as I well remember, the most precious doctrines of
election and reprobation, without giving much heed either to those who
mocked us, or to the gamesters upon our left, or to the dancers upon
our right. So we stood throughout the evening, until, finding that they
could get little sport from us, my Lord Clarendon, the Chancellor, gave
us the word to retire, which we did at our leisure after saluting the
King and the company.'

'Nay, that I should never have done!' cried the young Puritan, who had
listened intently to his elder's narrative. 'Would it not have been
more fitting to have raised up your hands and called down vengeance upon
them, as the holy man of old did upon the wicked cities?'

'More fitting, quotha!' said the Mayor impatiently. 'It is most fitting
that youth should be silent until his opinion is asked on such matters.
God's wrath comes with leaden feet, but it strikes with iron hands. In
His own good time He has judged when the cup of these men's iniquities
is overflowing. It is not for us to instruct Him. Curses have, as the
wise man said, a habit of coming home to roost. Bear that in mind,
Master John Derrick, and be not too liberal with them.'

The young apprentice, for such he was, bowed his head sullenly to the
rebuke, whilst the Mayor, after a short pause, resumed his story.

'Being a fine night,' said he, 'we chose to walk back to our lodgings;
but never shall I forget the wicked scenes wherewith we were encountered
on the way. Good Master Bunyan, of Elstow, might have added some
pages to his account of Vanity Fair had he been with us. The women,
be-patched, be-ruddled, and brazen; the men swaggering, roistering,
cursing--the brawling, the drabbing, and the drunkenness! It was a fit
kingdom to be ruled over by such a court. At last we had made our way to
more quiet streets, and were hoping that our adventures were at an end,
when of a sudden there came a rush of half-drunken cavaliers from a side
street, who set upon the passers-by with their swords, as though we had
fallen into an ambuscade of savages in some Paynim country. They were,
as I surmise, of the same breed as those of whom the excellent John
Milton wrote: "The sons of Belial, flown with insolence and wine." Alas!
my memory is not what it was, for at one time I could say by rote whole
books of that noble and godly poem.'

'And, pray, how fared ye with these r