“Aha, water, sayest thou, Long Allen?” exclaimed another archer, with a most scornful emphasis on the despised element; “how wouldst like such beverage thyself, after such a morrice dancing?”
“The devil a water-drop he gets here,” said a third. “We will teach the light-footed old infidel to be a good Christian, and drink wine of Cyprus.”
“Ay, ay,” said a fourth; “and in case he be restive, fetch thou Dick Hunter's horn, that he drenches his mare withal.”
A circle was instantly formed around the prostrate and exhausted dervise, and while one tall yeoman raised his feeble form from the ground, another presented to him a huge flagon of wine. Incapable of speech, the old man shook his head, and waved away from him with his hand the liquor forbidden by the Prophet. But his tormentors were not thus to be appeased.
“The horn, the horn!” exclaimed one. “Little difference between a Turk and a Turkish horse, and we will use him conforming.”
“By Saint George, you will choke him!” said Long Allen; “and besides, it is a sin to throw away upon a heathen dog as much wine as would serve a good Christian for a treble night-cap.”
“Thou knowest not the nature of these Turks and pagans, Long Allen,” replied Henry Woodstall. “I tell thee, man, that this flagon of Cyprus will set his brains a-spinning, just in the opposite direction that they went whirling in the dancing, and so bring him, as it were, to himself again. Choke? He will no more choke on it than Ben's black bitch on the pound of butter.”
“And for grudging it,” said Tomalin Blacklees, “why shouldst thou grudge the poor paynim devil a drop of drink on earth, since thou knowest he is not to have a drop to cool the tip of his tongue through a long eternity?”
“That were hard laws, look ye,” said Long Allen, “only for being a Turk, as his father was before him. Had he been Christian turned heathen, I grant you the hottest corner had been good winter quarters for him.”
“Hold thy peace, Long Allen,” said Henry Woodstall. “I tell thee that tongue of thine is not the shortest limb about thee, and I prophesy that it will bring thee into disgrace with Father Francis, as once about the black-eyed Syrian wench. But here comes the horn. Be active a bit, man, wilt thou, and just force open his teeth with the haft of thy dudgeon-dagger.”