[Exeunt omnes.
Enter the three Lords with their Pages and FEALTY, a Herald, before them, his coat having the arms of London before, and an olive tree behind.
POLICY.
Fealty, thou faithful herald of our town,
Thou true truce-keeper and sure friend in peace,
Take down our shields, and give them to our boys.
[He delivers them.
Now, Fealty, prepare thy wits for war,
To parley with the proud Castilians,
Approaching fast the frontiers of our coast.
Wit here, my page, in every message shall
Attend on thee, to note them and their deeds.
I need not tell thee, they are poor and proud:
Vaunters, vainglorious, tyrants, truce-breakers:
Envious, ireful, and ambitious.
For thou hast found their facings and their brags,
Their backs their coffers, and their wealth their rags;
But let me tell thee what we crave of thee—
To scan with judgment what their leaders be,
To note their presence and observe their grace,
And truly to advertise what they seem;
Whether to be experienced in arms,
Or men of name—those three that lead the rest—
The rest refer we to thy own conceit.
FEALTY.
I hope in this my duty to discharge,
As heretofore——
SIMPLICITY make a great noise within, and enter with
three or four weaponed.
SIMPLICITY. Clubs! clubs![270] Nay, come, neighbours, come, for here they be: here I left them, arrant thieves, rogues, coseners. I charge ye, as you will answer, 'prehend them; for they have undone me, and robb'd me, and made me the poorest freeman that ever kept a ballad-stall.
A CONSTABLE. I charge ye keep the peace, and lay down your weapons. [To the three Lords.
POMP.
Who rais'd this tumult? Speak, what means this stir?
SIMPLICITY.
O, I am undone, robb'd, spoil'd of all my stock! Let me see, where
be they? Keep every street and door: 'xamine all that comes for
Fraud that cosener.
POLICY.
Masters, what mean you in these troublous times
To keep this coil?