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Yes, yes, father abbot, your fault it is highe,
And now for the same thou needest must dye;
For except thou canst answer me questions three,
Thy head shall be smitten from thy bodie.

And first, quo' the king, when I'm in this stead,
With my crowne of golde so faire on my head,
Among all my liege-men so noble of birthe,
Thou must tell me to one penny what I am worthe.

Secondlye, tell me, without any doubt,

How soone I may ride the whole world about;
And at the third question thou must not shrink,
But tell me here truly what I do think.

O, these are hard questions for my shallow witt,
Nor I cannot answer your grace as yet;
But if you will give me but three weeks space,
Ile do my endeavour to answer your grace.

Now three weeks space to thee will I give,
And that is the longest time thou hast to live;
For if thou dost not answer my questions three,
Thy lands and thy livings are forfeit to mee.

Away rode the abbot, all sad at that word,
And he rode to Cambridge and Oxenford;
But never a doctor there was so wise

That could with his learning an answer devise.

Then home rode the abbot, of comfort so cold,
And he mett his shepheard agoing to fold:
How now, my lord abbot, you are welcome home:
What newes do you bring us from good King John?

Sad newes, sad newes, shepheard, I must give:

That I have but three days more to live;

For if I do not answer him questions three,

My head will be smitten from my bodie.

The first is to tell him there in that stead,
With his crowne of golde so fair on his head,
Among all his liege-men so noble of birthe,
To within one penny of what he is worthe.

The second, to tell him, without any doubt,
How soone he may ride this whole world about;
And at the third question I must not shrinke,
But tell him there truly what he does thinke.

Now cheare up, sire abbot: did you never hear yet,
That a fool he may learne a wise man witt?
Lend me horse, and serving-men, and your apparel,
And Ile ride to London to answere your quarrel.

Nay, frowne not, if it hath bin told unto mee,

I am like your lordship, as ever may bee;
And if you will but lend me your gowne,

There is none shall knowe us in fair London towne,

Now horses and serving-men thou shalt have,
With sumptuous array most gallant and brave;
With crozier, and mitre, and rochet, and cope,
Fit to appeare 'fore our fader the Pope.

Now welcome, sire abbot, the king he did say,
"Tis well thou'rt come back to keepe thy day;
For and if thou canst answer my questions three,
Thy life and thy living both saved shall bee.

And first, when thou seest me here in this stead,
With my crowne of golde so fair on my head,
Among all my liege-men so noble of birthe,
Tell me to one penny what I am worthe.

For thirty pence our Saviour was sold
Among the false Jewes, as I have bin told;
And twenty-nine is the worth of thee,

For I think thou art one penny worser than hee.

The king he laughed, and swore by St. Bittel,

I did not think I had been worth so littel!

Now. secondly, tell me, without any doubt,

How soone I may ride this whole world about.

You must rise with the sun, and ride with the same,
Until the next morning he riseth againe;

And then your grace need not make any doubt
But in twenty-four hours you'll ride it about.

The king he laughed, and swore by St. Jone,

I did not think it could be gone so soone!

Now, from the third question thou must not shrinke,
But tell me here truly what I do thinke.

Yea, that shall I do, and make your grace merry;
You thinke I'm the abbot of Canterbury;
But I'm his poor shepheard, as plain you may see,
That am come to beg pardon for him and for mee.

The king he laughed, and swore by the masse,
Ile make thee lord abbot this day in his place!
Naye naye, my liege, be not in such speede,
For alacke, I can neither write nor reade.

Four nobles a week, then, I will give thee,

For this merry jest thou hast showne unto mee;

And tell the old abbot, when thou comest home,

Thou hast brought him a pardon from good King John.

The Fancies of Fact.

THE WOUNDS OF JULIUS CÆSAR.

"Look! in this place ran Cassius' dagger through:
See what a rent the envious Casca made:
Through this the well-beloved Brutus stabbed."

AT a meeting of the French Academy of Medicine, a few years ago, a curious paper was read, on behalf of M. Dubois, of Amiens, entitled "Investigations into the death of Julius Cæsar." M. Dubois having looked up the various passages referring to this famous historic incident to be found in Dion Cassius, Plutarch, Suetonius, Appian, &c., and compared them with one another, has fixed the spots where the four first wounds were inflicted, and the names of the conspirators who inflicted them. The first blow, struck by one of the brothers Casca, produced a slight wound underneath the left clavicle; the second, struck by the other Casca, penetrated the walls of the thorax toward the right; Cassius inflicted the third wound in the face. Decimus Brutus gave the fourth stab in the region of the groin. Contrary to the general opinion, Marcus Brutus, though one of the conspirators, did not strike the dictator. After the first blows Cæsar fainted, and then all the conspirators hacked his body. He was carried by three slaves in a litter to his house. Anstistius, the physician, was

called in and found thirty-five wounds, only one of which was in his opinion fatal, that of the second Casca.

BILLS FOR STRANGE SERVICES.

The bill of the Cirencester painter, mentioned by Bishop Horne, (Essays and Thoughts,) is as follows:

Mr. Charles Terrebee

To Joseph Cook, Dr.

To mending the Commandments, altering the Belief, and making a new Lord's Prayer

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£1-1-0

Here is a Carpenter's bill of the Fifteenth Century, copied from the records of an old London Church::

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Judge Blackstone says, in his Commentaries (Vol. i. ch. xviii.), that every Bishop, Parson or Vicar is a Corporation. Lord Coke asserts, in his Reports (10. Rep. 32,) that “a Corporation has no soul." Upon these premises, the logical inference would be that neither Bishops, Parsons nor Vicars have souls.

RECIPROCAL CONVERSION.

A curious case of mixed process of conversation was that of the two brothers, Dr. John Reynold's, King's Professor at Oxford, in 1630, a zealous Roman Catholic, and Dr. Wm. Reynolds, an eminent Protestant. They were both learned men, and as brothers held such affectionate relations, that the deadly heresies of which each regarded the other as the victim were matters of earnest and pleading remonstrance between them by discus sion and correspondence. The pains and zeal of each were

equally rewarded.

The Roman Catholic brother became an

ardent Protestant, and the Protestant brother became a Roman Catholic.

PITHY PRAYER.

We are indebted to Hume for the preservation of a short prayer, which he says was that of Lord Astley, before he charged at Edge-hill. It ran thus: "O Lord, thou knowest how busy I must be this day; if I forget thee, do not thou forget me." And Hume adds, "There were certainly much longer prayers in the Parliamentary army, but I doubt if there was as good a one."

MELROSE BY SUNLIGHT.

The beautiful description of the appearance of the ruins of Melrose Abbey by moonlight, in the Lay of the Last Minstrel, has led thousands to visit the scene "when silver edges the imagery," yet it is worth noting that the author never saw the ruined pile by "the pale moonlight." Bernard Barton once wrote to Scott to request him to favor a young lady with a copy of the lines in his own handwriting. Sir Walter complied, but substituted for the concluding lines of the original the following:

"Then go-and muse with deepest awe

On what the writer never saw;

Who would not wander 'neath the moon
To see what he could see at noon."

BACK ACTION.

Alphonse Karr, in his Guêpes, speaking of the dexterities of the legal profession, relates a pleasant anecdote of the distinguished lawyer, afterward deputy, M. Chaix d'Est-Ange. He was employed in a case where both the parties were old men. Referring to his client, he said: "He has attained that age, when the mind, freed from the passions, and tyranny of the body, takes a higher flight, and soars in a purer and serener air." Later in his speech, he found occasion to allude to the

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