[St. Ives by Robert Louis Stevenson]@TWC D-Link bookSt. Ives CHAPTER XV--THE ADVENTURE OF THE ATTORNEY'S CLERK 6/33
Consider yourselves under arrest.
I have to trouble you for your papers.' 'Where is your warrant, if you come to that ?' said I.
'My papers! A likely thing that I would show my papers on the _ipse dixit_ of an unknown fellow in a hedge alehouse!' 'Would you resist the law ?' says he. 'Not the law, sir!' said I.
'I hope I am too good a subject for that. But for a nameless fellow with a bald head and a pair of gingham small-clothes, why certainly! 'Tis my birthright as an Englishman. Where's _Magna Charta_, else ?' 'We will see about that,' says he; and then, addressing the assistants, 'where does the constable live ?' 'Lord love you, sir!' cried the landlord, 'what are you thinking of? The constable at past ten at night! Why, he's abed and asleep, and good and drunk two hours agone!' 'Ah that a' be!' came in chorus from the yokels. The attorney's clerk was put to a stand.
He could not think of force; there was little sign of martial ardour about the landlord, and the peasants were indifferent--they only listened, and gaped, and now scratched a head, and now would get a light to their pipes from the embers on the hearth.
<<Back Index Next>> D-Link book Top TWC mobile books
|