“He won't go, gentlemen.”
“What do you mean by he won't go?” said Williams.
“I told him your orders; and he said, 'Tell their worships they are exceeding their authority, and I won't go.' Then I said, 'They give you half an hour to pack up and then you must pack off.'”
“He! he! he! and what did he say?”
“'Oh, they give me half an hour, do they?' says he—'you take them this'—and he wrote this on a slip of paper—here it is.”
The slip contained these words—
[Greek letters]
While the justices were puzzling over this, Hawes added, “Gentlemen, he said in his polite way, 'If it is like the prison rules and beats their comprehension, you may tell them it means—
“'There is many a slip
'Twixt the cup and the lip.'”
“Well, Mr. Hawes—what next?”