Proof of this is afforded by comparison of the old romance of 'Havelok the Dane'[52] as it exists in its home and in its foreign versions, and both of which are assigned to a period anterior to the fourteenth century. The translator was evidently a man of spirit, who to warm his Lincolnshire readers has added much original incident and local colouring. Nevertheless he carefully retained the Norman _deus_. It was evidently quite at home on the wolds and in the fens of the translator's country, and only wanted the accent which Grimsby patrons would not fail to supply, to transform it to the expression with which we are so well acquainted. There seems to be one oath of this description which bids fair to elude all guess-work as to its origin or meaning. It was formerly a practice in France to swear _par le diable de Biterne_. When so much exactitude had been employed to emphasise the whereabouts of this personage, it is only natural to inquire where the locality referred to might happen to be. We believe, however, that no satisfactory answer has as yet been returned. Some light is thrown upon the question by Francisque Michel who (in his 'Recherches sur les Etoffes de Soie') has shown that a present of some rare _pailes de Biterne_ was sent to Alexander by Candace, one of the queens of Ethiopia. With this single ray of illumination we must be content. CHAPTER IX. "As I was finishing this worke, an oyster-wife tooke exception against me and called me knave."--'_Lamentable Effect of Two Dangerous Comets_,' 1591.