“‘My dear friends, who would not enter a service in which he may give blows to his mortal enemy, and receive none; and in which not only the eternal gain is incalculable, but also the temporal, at four-and-twenty, may be far above the emolument of generals, who, before the priest was born, had bled profusely for their country, established her security, brightened her glory, and augmented her dominions?’”
At this pause did Sir Thomas turn unto Sir Silas, and asked,—
“I say it is so, and was so, and should be so, and shall be so. If the queen’s brother had not sopped the priests and bishops out of the Catholic cup, they could have held the Catholic cup in their own hands, instead of yielding it into his. They earned their money; if they sold their consciences for it, the business is theirs, not ours. I call this facing the devil with a vengeance. We have their coats; no matter who made ’em,—we have ’em, I say, and we will wear ’em; and not a button, tag, or tassel, shall any man tear away.”
Sir Thomas then turned to Willy, and requested him to proceed with the doctor’s discourse, who thereupon continued:—
“‘Within your own recollections, how many good, quiet, inoffensive men, unendowed with any extraordinary abilities, have been enabled, by means of divinity, to enjoy a long life in tranquillity and affluence?’
“Whereupon did one of the young gentlemen smile, and, on small encouragement from Doctor Glaston to enounce the cause thereof, he repeated these verses, which he gave afterward unto me:—
“‘In the names on our books Was standing Tom Flooke’s, Who took in due time his degrees; Which when he had taken, Like Ascham or Bacon, By night he could snore and by day he could sneeze.
“‘Calm, pithy, pragmatical, { 164a} Tom Flooke he could at a call Rise up like a hound from his sleep; And if many a quarto He gave not his heart to, If pellucid in lore, in his cups he was deep.
“‘He never did harm, And his heart might be warm, For his doublet most certainly was so; And now has Torn Flooke A quieter nook Than ever had Spenser or Tasso.
“‘He lives in his house, As still as a mouse, Until he has eaten his dinner; But then doth his nose Outroar all the woes That encompass the death of a sinner.