“Did they come back unto the punt?”
Joseph Carnaby.
“They went down the stream in it, and crossed the Avon some fourscore yards below where we were standing. They came back in it, and moored it to the sedges in which it had stood before.”
Sir Thomas.
“How long were they absent?”
Joseph Carnaby.
“Within an hour, or thereabout, all the three men returned. Will Shakspeare and another were sitting in the middle, the third punted.
“‘Remember now, gentles!’ quoth William Shakspeare, ‘the road we have taken is henceforward a footpath for ever, according to law.’
“‘How so?’ asked the punter, turning toward him,
“‘Forasmuch as a corpse hath passed along it,’ answered he.