S.—What stuff a fool may talk! No true soldier would pit a serpent against a brave enemy. These worms were sailors.
F.—A nice distinction, truly! Did you ever, my most acute professor of vivisection, employ your trenchant blade in the splitting of hairs?
S.—I have split masses of them.
FOOL.—Speaking of the Crusades: at the siege of Acre, when a part of the wall had been thrown down by the Christians, the Pisans rushed into the breach, but the greater part of their army being at dinner, they were bloodily repulsed.
SOLDIER.—You appear to have a minute acquaintance with military history.
F.—Yes—being a fool. But was it not a sin and a shame that those feeders should not stir from their porridge to succour their suffering comrades?
S.—Pray why should a man neglect his business to oblige a friend?
F.—But they might have taken and sacked the city.
S.—The selfish gluttons!