_A_ POOR MAN _(entering) with his dog_. My lord Archbishop, may I come in with my poor friend, my dog? The King's verdurer caught him a-hunting in the forest, and cut off his paws. The dog followed his calling, my lord. I ha' carried him ever so many miles in my arms, and he licks my face and moans and cries out against the King. BECKET. Better thy dog than thee. The King's courts would use thee worse than thy dog--they are too bloody. Were the Church king, it would be otherwise. Poor beast! poor beast! set him down. I will bind up his wounds with my napkin. Give him a bone, give him a bone! Who misuses a dog would misuse a child--they cannot speak for themselves. Past help! his paws are past help. God help him! _Enter the_ BEGGARS _(and seat themselves at the Tables)_. BECKET _and_ HERBERT _wait upon them_. 1ST BEGGAR. Swine, sheep, ox--here's a French supper. When thieves fall out, honest men---- 2ND BEGGAR. Is the Archbishop a thief who gives thee thy supper? 1ST BEGGAR. Well, then, how does it go? When honest men fall out, thieves--no, it can't be that. 2ND BEGGAR. Who stole the widow's one sitting hen o' Sunday, when she was at mass? 1ST BEGGAR. Come, come! thou hadst thy share on her. Sitting hen! Our Lord Becket's our great sitting-hen cock, and we shouldn't ha' been sitting here if the barons and bishops hadn't been a-sitting on the Archbishop. BECKET. Ay, the princes sat in judgment against me, and the Lord hath prepared your table--_Sederunt principes, ederunt pauperes_. _A Voice_. Becket, beware of the knife! BECKET. Who spoke? 3RD BEGGAR. Nobody, my lord. What's that, my lord? BECKET. Venison. 3RD BEGGAR. Venison? BECKET. Buck; deer, as you call it. 3RD BEGGAR. King's meat! By the Lord, won't we pray for your lordship! BECKET. And, my children, your prayers will do more for me in the day of peril that dawns darkly and drearily over the house of God--yea, and in the day of judgment also, than the swords of the craven sycophants would have done had they remained true to me whose bread they have partaken. I must leave you to your banquet. Feed, feast, and be merry. Herbert, for the sake of the Church itself, if not for my own, I must fly to France to-night. Come with me. [_Exit with_ HERBERT. 3RD BEGGAR. Here--all of you--my lord's health (_they drink_). Well--if that isn't goodly wine-- 1ST BEGGAR. Then there isn't a goodly wench to serve him with it: they were fighting for her to-day in the street. 3RD BEGGAR. Peace! 1ST BEGGAR. The black sheep baaed to the miller's ewe-lamb, The miller's away for to-night. Black sheep, quoth she, too black a sin for me. And what said the black sheep, my masters? We can make a black sin white. 3RD BEGGAR. Peace! 1ST BEGGAR.