_Man._ Look you, Sir, I have not much time to waste with you: but if you expect mercy yourself, you must show it to one you have been cruel to. Count _Bas._ Cruel, Sir! _Man._ Have not you ruin'd this young woman? Count _Bas._ I, Sir! _Man._ I know you have----therefore you can't blame her, if, in the fact you are charg'd with, she is a principal witness against you. However, you have one and one only chance to get off with. Marry her this instant----and you take off her evidence. Count _Bas._ Dear Sir! _Man._ No words, Sir; a wife or a _mittimus_. Count _Bas._ Lord, Sir! this is the most unmerciful mercy! _Man._ A private penance, or a public one----constable. Count _Bas._ Hold, Sir, since you are pleas'd to give me my choice; I will not make so ill a compliment to the Lady, as not to give her the preference. _Man._ It must be done this minute, Sir: the chaplain you expected is still within call. Count _Bas._ Well, Sir,----since it must be so----come, spouse----I am not the first of the fraternity that has run his head into one noose, to keep it out of another. _Myr._ Come, Sir, don't repine: marriage is, at worst, but playing upon the square. Count _Bas._ Ay, but the worst of the match too, is the devil. _Man._ Well, Sir, to let you see it is not so bad as you think it; as a reward for her honesty, in detecting your practices, instead of the forged bill you would have put upon her, there's a real one of five hundred pounds, to begin a new honey-moon with. [_Gives it to Myrtilla._ Count _Bas._ Sir, this is so generous an act---- _Man._ No compliments, dear Sir,----I am not at leisure now to receive them: Mr. _Constable_, will you be so good as to wait upon this gentleman into the next room, and give this lady in marriage to him? _Const._ Sir, I'll do it faithfully. Count _Bas._ Well! five hundred will serve to make a handsome push with, however. [_Exeunt Count, ~Myr.~ and Constable._ Sir _Fran._ And that I may be sure my family's rid of him for ever----come, my Lady, let's even take our children along with us, and be all witness of the ceremony. [_Exeunt Sir ~Fran~, Lady ~Wrong~, Miss and Squire._ _Man._ Now, my Lord, you may enter. _Enter Lord and Lady ~Townly~, and Lady ~Grace~._ Lord _Town._ So, Sir, I give you joy of your negotiation. _Man._ You overheard it all, I presume? Lady _Grace._ From first to last, Sir. Lord _Town._ Never were knaves and fools better dispos'd of. _Man._ A sort of poetical justice, my Lord, not much above the judgment of a modern comedy. Lord _Town._ To heighten that resemblance, I think, sister, there only wants your rewarding the hero of the fable, by naming the day of his happiness. Lady _Grace._ This day, to-morrow, every hour, I hope, of life to come, will shew I want not inclination to complete it.