The thing is as clear as day. Or, assuming that it is not, and that I must admit that Pistol actually _did_ himself accomplish the journey from London to Gloucestershire in a single day. Why not? Of all tactics in the art of war, there was none which this veteran soldier had so deeply studied, and so frequently practised, as that of successfully managing a retreat. There was no possible amount or speed of running away, on pressing emergency, of which he could have been reasonably pronounced incapable. * Beadle.--Come, I charge you both go with me; for the man is dead that you and Pistol beat among you.--Henry IV. Part II. Act iv. Scene 5. I am now enabled to resume my narrative with the most perfect composure; and I really wish the captious and fastidious would not compel me to do violence to my predilections by such frequent digressions. It must have been then--in short, it _was_--the evening of the nineteenth of this much-talked-of month of March, which Sir John Falstaff, with Master Robert Shallow, his entertainer, and Master Silence, the latter gentleman’s unobtrusive kinsman, found of such unseasonably tempting mildness as to induce them to get up from the supper table, whereat Davy, Master Shallow’s factotum, had deftly served them with the choicest efforts of William Cook’s genius (“some pigeons,” “a couple of short-legged hens,” “a joint of mutton,” and “pretty little tiny kickshaws,” _ad libitum_, are indicated by the chronicler as having, in all probability, formed the staple articles of the bill of fare), to partake of dessert in the open air, in a snug arbour of the justice’s orchard. Sir John, with his retinue, consisting of Bardolph, Robin, and possibly some half dozen supernumeraries, had arrived just in time for supper--ostensibly _à l’improviste_, and with no intention of staying for a longer time than might serve them to repose and refresh themselves. * For arguments on this subject see ante, p. 113. “By cock and pye, Sir,” Master Shallow had said on our knight’s arrival, “you shall not away to-night.” To which Sir John had replied that he must be excused. But Master Shallow would not excuse him: he should not be excused. There was no excuse should serve: Sir John should not be excused. And Master Shallow had immediately ordered supper, and bidden Sir John to off with his boots.