"Whoy, mistress, I'd leifer be hung nor stifled to death wi' brimstone and bad humours."
"None o' thy quiddities, thou maker of long lies and quick legs. Confess, or I'll"—
"Whoy, look ye, mistress, you've been kind, and pulled me out of many an ugly ditch."
"Why dost thou hesitate, knave? I'm glad thy memory is not so treacherous as thy tongue."
"Nay, mistress, I've no notion to sup brose wi' t' old one: those that dinner wi' him he may happen ask to supper; and he'd need have a long whittle that cuts crumbs wi' the de'il."
"Art thou at thy riddles again? Speak in sober similitudes, if thou canst, sirrah."
"Your father sent me on a message to the little devilkin last night. I was loth enough to the job; but he catched me as I went wi' the victuals."
"A message!—and to what purport?"
"Nay, that I know not. The invitation was conveyed in a scrap of writing, and I'm not gifted in clerkship an' such like matters."
A ray of intelligence now burst upon her. She saw the imminent danger which threatened the fugitive, who had been