He said if he had dropped the key, the key was to be found, and they must help him to find it.

They told him they wouldn't move a peg for him.

He declared, with much language, he would have them all turned out of the king's service.

They said they would swear he was drunk.
And so positive were they about it, that at last the butler himself began to think whether it was possible they could be in the right.

For he knew that sometimes when he had been drunk he fancied things had taken place which he found afterward could not have happened.