_Mayoress_. Who ever heard of wives making their husbands noblemen, duck? _Mayor_. Who knows, my child, how many have been made so? But be not terrified; you have driven that cursed Faustus out of his wits. (_The Mayoress blushed_; _he continued_) Only on his account will the envoy create me a nobleman, and Faustus is to deliver to thee the patent of nobility in private. You understand me, I perceive. Hem! What do you think of the plan? _Mayoress_. I was thinking, my treasure, that if these two gentlemen were to change their minds, we should certainly lose the patent. _Mayor_. Curse it! so we might. Let us be quick, my mouse; such bargains are not met with every day. The company had in the mean while dispersed themselves in the garden; and his worship, getting behind Faustus, whispered softly in his ear that "his wife would esteem it an honour to receive the patent of nobility from his hand; and he had only to step up a back staircase, which he would show him, to an apartment where he would find her. That as for himself, he feared nothing from a man who had shown so much honour and conscience." He led him thereupon to the back staircase. Faustus glided up immediately, and entered a chamber, where he found the mayoress: he flew to her, and created the mayor a knight of the Holy Roman Empire. She then went and delivered to her spouse the letter of nobility; and they determined between them that it should be laid upon the supper-table in a covered golden dish, in order, by its unexpected appearance, to make the blow more painful to the guests. The Devil, to whom the mayor confided the plan, highly approved of it; but Faustus murmured in the ear of Leviathan, "I command thee to play this rascal, who has prostituted his wife for ambition's sake, a thorough knavish trick; and to revenge me, at the same time, on all these sheep-headed magistrates, who so long forced me to pay my court to them." They sat down to supper, and the glasses went quickly round; when all at once the Devil commanded the dish, which had so long excited the Curiosity of the surrounders, to be uncovered; then, holding up the letter of nobility, he delivered it to the mayor with these words: "Worthy sir, his majesty the emperor, my master, is pleased by this patent letter of nobility to create you, on account of your fidelity and services, a knight of the Holy Roman Empire. I hope and trust that you will never grow lukewarm in your zeal for the high imperial house; and now, Sir Knight, I have the honour of first drinking your health."