PUFF. Yes.—What, gentlemen, do you mean to go at once to the discovery scene? JUSTICE. If you please, sir. PUFF. Oh, very well!—Hark’ee, I don’t choose to say anything more; but, i’faith they have mangled my play in a most shocking manner. DANGLE. It’s a great pity! PUFF. Now, then, Mr. justice, if you please. JUSTICE. Are all the volunteers without? CONSTABLE. They are. Some ten in fetters, and some twenty drunk. JUSTICE. Attends the youth, whose most opprobrious fame And clear convicted crimes have stamp’d him soldier? CONSTABLE. He waits your pleasure; eager to repay The best reprieve that sends him to the fields Of glory, there to raise his branded hand In honour’s cause. JUSTICE. ’Tis well—’tis justice arms him! Oh! may he now defend his country’s laws With half the spirit he has broke them all! If ’tis your worship’s pleasure, bid him enter. CONSTABLE. I fly, the herald of your will. [_Exit._] PUFF. Quick, sir. SNEER. But, Mr. Puff, I think not only the justice, but the clown seems to talk in as high a style as the first hero among them. PUFF. Heaven forbid they should not in a free country!—Sir, I am not for making slavish distinctions, and giving all the fine language to the upper sort of people. DANGLE. That’s very noble in you, indeed. _Enter_ JUSTICE’S LADY. PUFF. Now, pray mark this scene. _Lady_ Forgive this interruption, good my love; But as I just now pass’d a prisoner youth, Whom rude hands hither lead, strange bodings seized My fluttering heart, and to myself I said, An’ if our Tom had lived, he’d surely been This stripling’s height! JUSTICE. Ha! sure some powerful sympathy directs Us both— _Enter_ CONSTABLE _with_ SON. What is thy name? SON. My name is Tom Jenkins—_alias_ have I none—Though orphan’d, and without a friend! JUSTICE. Thy parents? SON. My father dwelt in Rochester—and was, As I have heard—a fishmonger—no more. PUFF. What, sir, do you leave out the account of your birth, parentage, and education? SON. They have settled it so, sir, here. PUFF. Oh! oh! _Lady_. How loudly nature whispers to my heart Had he no other name? SON. I’ve seen a bill Of his sign’d Tomkins, creditor. JUSTICE. This does indeed confirm each circumstance The gipsy told!—Prepare! SON. I do. JUSTICE. No orphan, nor without a friend art thou—I am thy father; here’s thy mother; there Thy uncle—this thy first cousin, and those are all your near relations! JUSTICE’S LADY. O ecstasy of bliss! SON. O most unlook’d for happiness! JUSTICE. O wonderful event! [_They faint alternately in each other’s arms_.] PUFF. There, you see, relationship, like murder, will out. JUSTICE. Now let’s revive—else were this joy too much! But come—and we’ll unfold the rest within; And thou, my boy, must needs want rest and food. Hence may each orphan hope, as chance directs, To find a father—where he least expects! [_Exeunt_.] PUFF. What do you think of that?