_Fool._ Queen Margaret has sheltered me from the peltings of fortune, this many a year. Now the pelting has damaged my shelter; but still I stick to it. More simpleton I!--to stand, like a thin-clad booby, in a hard shower, under an unroofed penthouse. Truly, for a fool of my experience, I have but little wisdom: and yet a camp suits well with my humour; take away the fighting--the sleeping in a field--the bad fare--the long marches, and the short pay--and a soldier's is a rare merry life.--Here come two more musterers--troth we have need of them--for, considering the goodness of the cause, they drop in as sparingly as mites into a poor's box. _Enter ADELINE and GREGORY._ _Adeline._ Tremble not now, Gregory, for your life! _Gregory._ Lord, madam, that is the only thing I do tremble for: if I had as many lives as a cat, I must borrow a tenth, I fancy, to carry me out of this place. _Adeline._ Pooh! pr'ythee--we are here among friends. Did you not mark the courtesy of the centinels; who, upon signifying our intentions, bid us pass on, till we should find a leader, to whom we might tender our services? _Gregory._ Ah! and there he is, I suppose. [_Pointing to the FOOL._] Mercy on us! he's a terrible looking fellow--his coat has been so pepper'd with musket shot in the wars, that 'tis patch'd from the very top to the bottom. _Adeline._ Tut, tut, man! your fears have made you blind; this motley gentleman's occupation has nothing terrible in it, I'll answer for it--we will accost him. How now, fellow? _Fool._ How now, fool? _Adeline._ What, sirrah? call you me fool? _Fool._ 'Faith may I, sir; when you call me fellow. Hail to you, sir, you are very well met. Nay you need not be ashamed of me for a companion; simple though I seem, we fools come of a great family, with a number of rich relations. _Adeline._ Why do you follow the camp, fool? _Fool._ For the same reason that a blind beggar follows his dog;--though it may lead me where my neck may be broke, I can't get on in the world without it. You, sir, I take it, are come, like me, to shoot your bolt at the enemy? _Adeline._ I come, partly, indeed, among other purposes, to offer my weak aid to the army. _Fool._ Your weakness, sir, acts marvellously wisely: you'll be the clean-shaved Nestor of the regiment. _Adeline._ If I could find your leader, I would vouch, too, for the integrity of this my follower, to be received into the ranks. _Gregory._ Oh no, you need not put yourself to the trouble of vouching for me. _Fool._ Right; for your knave, when great folks have occasion for him, is received with little inquiry into his character. Marry, let an honest man lack their assistance, and starving stares him in the face, for want of a recommendation. _Adeline._ Lead us to your General, and you shall be well remember'd by me.