+Pet.+ Yes, sir, I believe you have not seen the like of them: they are a couple of old manuscripts, found in a wall,[339] and stored up with the foundation; it may be they are the writings of some prophetess. +Ant.+ What moves you to think so, Petro? +Pet.+ Because, sir, the characters are so imperfect; for time has eaten out the letters, and the dust makes a parenthesis[340] betwixt every syllable. +Ant.+ A shrewd, convincing argument! this fellow has a notable reach with him. Go, bid him enter. A hundred to one some fool has them in possession that knows not their value: it may be a man may purchase them for little or nothing---- _Enter +Lionel+, like a scholar, with two books._ Come near, friend, let me see what you have there. Umph, 'tis, as I said, they are of the old Roman binding. What's the price of these? +Lio.+ I would be loth, sir, to sell them under rate, only to merit laughter for my rashness; therefore I thought good to bestow them on you, and refer myself to your wisdom and free nature for my satisfaction. +Ant.+ You say well; then am I bound again in conscience to deal justly with you: will five hundred crowns content you? +Lio.+ I'll demand no more, sir. +Ant.+ Petro, see them delivered. Now I need not fear to tell you what they are: this is a book _de Republica_, 'tis Marcus Tullius Cicero's own hand writing; I have some other books of his penning give me assurance of it.[341] +Pet.+ And what's the other, sir? +Ant.+ This other is a book of mathematics, that was long lost in darkness, and afterwards restored by Ptolemy. +Lio.+ I wonder, sir, unless you were Time's secretary, how you should arrive to this intelligence. +Ant.+ I know it by more than inspiration. You had them out of a wall, you say. +Lio.+ Yes, sir. +Ant.+ Well, then, however you came by them, they were first brought to Venice by Cardinal Grimani,[342] a patriarch, and were digged out of the ruins of Aquileia, after it was sacked by Attila king of the Huns. +Lio.+ This to me is wonderful. +Ant.+ Petro, I mean to retire, and give myself wholly to contemplation of these studies; and because nothing shall hinder me, I mean to lease out my lands and live confined: inquire me out a chapman that will take them of me. +Lio.+ If you please to let them, sir, I will help you to a tenant. +Ant.+ Will you, sir? with all my heart, and I'll afford him the better bargain for your sake. +Pet.+ He may pay the rent with counters, and make him believe they are antiquities. +Ant.+ What's the yearly rent of them, Petro? +Pet.+ They have been racked, sir, to three thousand crowns; but the old rent was never above fifteen hundred.