_Alc._ Faith, Sir Judge, I pray you let me be the gentleman's counsellor, for I can say thus much in his defence, that the Usurer's clock is the swiftest clock in all the town: 'tis, sir, like a woman's tongue, it goes ever half-an-hour before the time; for when we were gone from him, other clocks in the town struck four. _Judge._ Hold thy prating, fellow:--and you, young gentleman, this is my ward: look better another time both to your bargains and to the payments; for I must give flat sentence against you, that, for default of tendering the money between the hours, you have forfeited your recognisance, and he to have the land. _Thras._ [_Aside_]. O inspeakable injustice! _Alc._ [_Aside_]. O monstrous, miserable, moth-eaten Judge! _Judge._ Now you, fellow, what have you to say for your matter? _Alc._ Master Lawyer, I laid my wife's gown to pawn for your fees: I pray you, to this gear.[83] _Lawyer._ Alas, poor man, thy matter is out of my head, and therefore, I pray thee, tell it thyself. _Alc._ I hold my cap to a noble,[84] that the Usurer hath given him some gold, and he, chewing it in his mouth, hath got the toothache that he cannot speak. _Judge._ Well, sirrah, I must be short, and therefore say on. _Alc._ Master Judge, I borrowed of this man thirty shillings, for which I left him in pawn my good cow; the bargain was, he should have eighteen-pence a week, and the cow's milk for usury: now, sir, as soon as I had gotten the money, I brought it him, and broke but a day, and for that he refused his money, and keeps my cow, sir. _Judge._ Why, thou hast given sentence against thyself, for in breaking thy day thou hast lost thy cow. _Alc._ Master Lawyer, now for my ten shillings. _Lawyer._ Faith, poor man, thy case is so bad, I shall but speak against thee. _Alc._ 'Twere good, then, I should have my ten shillings again. _Lawyer._ 'Tis my fee, fellow, for coming: wouldst thou have me come for nothing? _Alc._ Why, then, am I like to go home, not only with no cow, but no gown: this gear goes hard. _Judge._ Well, you have heard what favour I can show you: I must do justice.--Come, Master Mizaldo,--and you, sir, go home with me to dinner. _Alc._ Why, but, Master Judge, no cow!--and, Master Lawyer, no gown! Then must I clean run out of the town. [_Exeunt_ Judge, Lawyer, Usurer, _and_ Attendants. How cheer you, gentleman? you cry "no lands" too; the Judge hath made you a knight for a gentleman, hath dubbed you Sir John Lack-land. _Thras._ O miserable time, wherein gold is above God! _Alc._ Fear not, man; I have yet a fetch to get thy lands and my cow again, for I have a son in the court, that is either a king or a king's fellow, and to him will I go and complain on the Judge and the Usurer both. _Thras._ And I will go with thee, and entreat him for my case. _Alc._ But how shall I go home to my wife, when I shall have nothing to say unto her but "no cow"? alas, sir, my wife's faults will fall upon me!