There thou hast missed the rarest opportunity!" "Take it thyself, then, bully Mike," answered Goldthred.

"Yonder is the enchanted manor, and the dragon, and the lady, all at thy service, if thou darest venture on them." "Why, so I would for a quartern of sack," said the soldier--"or stay: I am foully out of linen--wilt thou bet a piece of Hollands against these five angels, that I go not up to the Hall to-morrow and force Tony Foster to introduce me to his fair guest ?" "I accept your wager," said the mercer; "and I think, though thou hadst even the impudence of the devil, I shall gain on thee this bout.

Our landlord here shall hold stakes, and I will stake down gold till I send the linen." "I will hold stakes on no such matter," said Gosling.

"Good now, my kinsman, drink your wine in quiet, and let such ventures alone.

I promise you, Master Foster hath interest enough to lay you up in lavender in the Castle at Oxford, or to get your legs made acquainted with the town-stocks." "That would be but renewing an old intimacy, for Mike's shins and the town's wooden pinfold have been well known to each other ere now," said the mercer; "but he shall not budge from his wager, unless he means to pay forfeit." "Forfeit ?" said Lambourne; "I scorn it.