It was about this time that one of his own servants returned from the neighboring fair in a state of intoxication. The man was brought before his master, who at that very time was conversing with the confessor of his own family. 'How now, knave? this is not the first time thou hast been in bad company; thou didst promise to avoid such men if I forgave thee. Thou shall be put into the stocks, that all the country may know thee for a drunkard as thou art.' The half-witted man, who was sufficiently sober to comprehend what was said to him, and was sufficiently filled with sack not to be afraid of his master, looked very knowingly at him and the confessor. 'I's been in good company, master, very good; and if the stocks are lifted up for my legs, I hope you'll give me some o' the good company I ha' been in, to keep me in countenance there. There's many more like me, master; and there's one there as good as yoursel--or your reverence,' bowing to the priest. 'You're very even-handed, master, and my good company I've been in might qualify even a better man than me to be a little merry. I's only like my betters.' The knight looked at the priest; and the priest looked at the man, and both were puzzled at his words--but they did not speak at the moment. 'Why you looks doubtful, both on you. Go and see; I's not so drunk as not to know an owl when I sees one, though it might be the dusk of the evening when he flies. Go you with master: you'll see!' 'Where are we to go, and what are we to see?' 'Go to the Masque and Mummers--and if you don't see one you dare not put in the stocks, then don't put your own servant in; but if you dare to see him, and dare to take him, and dare to trap him too--why then trap me with him, and we'll be very good company for each other. So, master, I'm your man; and when you find a poor fellow imitating his betters, let his betters find the same law is made for him as for one o' the worst like me.' Sir Amias rose. He was not a man to flinch in the execution of the law intrusted to him as a magistrate; and to his honor be it recorded, he was not an unjust man, who would screen the rich at the expense of the poor. Had it been the Marquis of Dorset himself, he would have treated him exactly as he would a drunken vagabond, who had not a shilling to help himself. 'There is too much truth in this fellow's audacity,' he replied, 'to let this matter pass away unnoticed. It will be thrown in my teeth by every servant I have, after this, if I dismiss this villain and see not the company he has been in. Come, I will claim your companionship. Let us go undisguised and openly, that he, and all men may see what we do in the face of the law and our country.'