“Oh! Sir, I am a diseased man.” Bullcalf bellowed, proving that his lungs were at all events not yet affected. “What disease hast thou?” “A villainous cold, Sir--a cough, Sir--which I caught with ringing in the King’s affairs on his coronation day, Sir.” “Come, thou shalt go to the wars in a gown; we will have away thy cold; and I will take such order that thy friends shall ring for thee.” It was fortunate that with this sally Sir John Falstaff desisted for the present, or he would in all probability have been the death of Master Robert Shallow. That gentleman repeated the words, “And I will take such order that thy friends shall ring for thee,” to himself, many times over, that he might be able to retail the jest to his admiring friends. He circulated it at first as one of the many brilliant things Sir John Falstaff had said on the occasion of his first visit to Shallow Hall. But in the course of time the worthy magistrate appropriated it to his own service, and never missed an opportunity of bringing it forward (with the point carefully omitted) as an original witticism from the inexhaustible _repertoire_ of himself, Master Robert Shallow. Bullcalf was pricked. The justices and their military friend withdrew to luncheon. “Good Master Corporate Bardolph,” said Bullcalf when the troops were left alone with that warlike personage, “stand my friend, and here is four Harry ten shillings in French crowns for you.” Bullcalf urged his plea by further arguments. They were unnecessary. The first was more than sufficient. “Go to: stand aside,” said Bardolph, pocketing the money. Mouldy quitted the ranks and motioned his superior to grant him also a private conference. “And good Master Corporal Captain, for my old dame’s sake, stand my friend: she has nobody to do anything about her, when I am gone: and she is old and cannot help herself. You shall have forty, Sir.” Chink! Chink! “Go to: stand aside.” “Sir, a word with you,” said Bardolph when his Captain reappeared with the two justices. “I have _three_ pound to free Mouldy and Bullcalf.” It should be observed that four ten shilling pieces added to forty shillings at that period, as now, made a total of _four_ pounds sterling. Bardolph’s education had been neglected--and let us hope that his miscalculation was merely the result of a total ignorance of the rules of compound addition. A word to the wise is sufficient for them. Sir John Falstaff at once decided that Mouldy should stay at home until past service, and Bullcalf be left to grow till he should be fit for it. Sir John would have none of them. “Sir John, Sir John,” urged Master Shallow. “Do not yourself wrong: they are your likeliest men, and I would have you served with the best.” It is not improbable that Bullcalf was a poacher too. Sir John Falstaff was indignant.