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Meanwhile, the crowd within the court was increased by a great influx of the different members of the household, amongst whom were Shoreditch, Paddington, and Hector Cutbeard. "Marry, this promises to be a splendid sight!" said the clerk of the kitchen; "the king will, no doubt, do his devoir gallantly for the sake of the bright eyes that will look upon him."
Amongst the number were the Duke of Shoreditch, Paddington, Hector Cutbeard, and Kit Coo. At the moment of the king's entrance, they were talking of the approaching execution. "Oh, the vanity of worldly greatness!" exclaimed Bryan, lifting up his hands.
His confidant in this delicate matter is Cutbeard the barber, who, unlike his kind, never speaks unless spoken to, and does not even knick his scissors as he works. Cutbeard produces a parson with a bad cold, who can speak only in a whisper, to marry them; and when the parson coughs after the ceremony Morose demands back five shillings of the fee.
"Who is that tall monk?" asked Paddington. "Devil knows!" answered Cutbeard; "I never saw him before. But he has a villainous cut-throat look." Soon afterwards a flourish of trumpets was heard, and amid their joyous bruit the queen, sumptuously arrayed in cloth of gold and ermine, and having a small crown upon her brow, entered the gallery, and took her seat within it.
"You mean the queen's, of course?" said Shoreditch. "I mean hers who may be queen," replied Cutbeard; "Mistress Jane Seymour." "May be queen!" exclaimed Shoreditch. "You surely do not think the king will divorce his present consort?" "Stranger things have happened," replied Cutbeard significantly.
"Thou hast told thy legend fairly enough, good clerk of the kitchen," continued this personage; "but thou art wrong on many material points." "I have related the story as it was related to me," said Cutbeard somewhat nettled at the remark; "but perhaps you will set me right where I have erred." "It is true that Herne was a keeper in the reign of Richard the Second," replied the tall archer.
"If I am not greatly out of my reckoning," he added, "these are the last jousts Queen Anne will behold." "The saints forefend!" cried Shoreditch; "what reason have you for thinking so?" "That I may not declare," replied Cutbeard; "but before the jousts are over you will see whether I have been rightly informed or not." "Hush!" exclaimed Shoreditch.
Cutbeard, in opening with burlesque pedantry a budget of twelve impediments which make the bond null, is thus supported by Otter: 'Cutb. The first is 'impedimentum erroris'. 'Otter. Of which there are several species. 'Cutb. Ay, 'as error personae'. 'Otter. 'Of the Progress of the Soul, Second Anniversary. It is the strain not of a mourning lover, but of a mourning friend.
Both Cutbeard and Shoreditch were much alarmed lest the freedom of their expressions should be taken in umbrage by the king; but he calmed their fears by bestowing a good humoured buffet on the cheek of the latter of them, and quitting the hostel, returned to the castle by the same way he had left it.
"There is a tall monk eyeing us strangely; and I am not certain that he has not overheard what you have said." "He is welcome to the intelligence," replied Cutbeard; "the end will prove its truth." Though this was uttered in a confident tone, he nevertheless glanced with some misgiving at the monk, who stood behind Paddington.
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