JUSTICE CREDULOUS. Stay, John; did you perceive anything in my chocolate cup this morning? SERVANT. Nothing, your worship, unless it was a little grounds. JUSTICE CREDULOUS. What colour were they? SERVANT. Blackish, your worship. JUSTICE CREDULOUS. Ay, arsenic, black arsenic!—Why don’t you run for Dr. Rosy, you rascal? SERVANT. Now, sir? MRS. BRIDGET CREDULOUS. Oh, lovee, you may be sure it is in vain; let him run for the lawyer to witness your will, my life. JUSTICE CREDULOUS. Zounds! go for the doctor, you scoundrel. You are all confederate murderers. SERVANT. Oh, here he is, your worship. [_Exit_.] JUSTICE CREDULOUS. Now, Bridget, hold your tongue, and let me see if my horrid situation be apparent. _Enter_ DOCTOR ROSY. DR. ROSY. I have but just called to inform—hey! bless me, what’s the matter with your worship? JUSTICE CREDULOUS. There, he sees it already!—Poison in my face, in capitals! Yes, yes, I’m a sure job for the undertakers indeed! MRS. BRIDGET CREDULOUS. Oh! oh! alas, doctor! JUSTICE CREDULOUS. Peace, Bridget!—Why, doctor, my dear old friend, do you really see any change in me? DR. ROSY. Change! never was man so altered: how came these black spots on your nose? JUSTICE CREDULOUS. Spots on my nose! DR. ROSY. And that wild stare in your right eye! JUSTICE CREDULOUS. In my right eye? DR. ROSY. Ay, and, alack, alack, how you are swelled! JUSTICE CREDULOUS. Swelled! DR. ROSY. Ay, don’t you think he is, madam? MRS. BRIDGET CREDULOUS. Oh! ’tis in vain to conceal it!—Indeed, lovee, you are as big again as you were this morning. JUSTICE CREDULOUS. Yes, I feel it now—I’m poisoned!—Doctor, help me, for the love of justice! Give me life to see my murderer hanged. DR. ROSY. What? JUSTICE CREDULOUS. I’m poisoned, I say! DR. ROSY. Speak out! JUSTICE CREDULOUS. What! can’t you hear me? DR. ROSY. Your voice is so low and hollow, as it were, I can’t hear a word you say. JUSTICE CREDULOUS. I’m gone then!—_Hic jacet_, many years one of his majestu’s justices! MRS. BRIDGET CREDULOUS. Read, doctor!—Ah, lovee, the will!—Consider, my life, how soon you will be dead. JUSTICE CREDULOUS. No, Bridget, I shall die by inches. DR. ROSY. I never heard such monstrous iniquity.—Oh, you are gone indeed, my friend! the mortgage of your little bit of clay is out, and the sexton has nothing to do but to close. We must all go, sooner or later—high and low—Death’s a debt; his mandamus binds all alike—no bail, no demurrer. JUSTICE CREDULOUS. Silence, Dr. Croaker! will you cure me or will you not? DR. ROSY. Alas! my dear friend, it is not in my power; but I’ll certainly see justice done on your murderer. JUSTICE CREDULOUS. I thank you, my dear friend, but I had rather see it myself. DR. ROSY. Ay, but if you recover, the villain will escape. MRS. BRIDGET CREDULOUS. Will he? then indeed it would be a pity you should recover. I am so enraged against the villain, I can’t bear the thought of his escaping the halter.