“They told me in London thou hadst grown great at Windsor, and I hastened hither post to witness the marvel with mine own eyes--mistrusting other testimony. Lo, I am convinced! I saw thee this morning strutting on Wykeham’s Tower--marshalling the workmen with thy wand of office, and noted that thou hadst become fat. At length, then, I may greet thee as an equal--the more, as it would seem I myself have so dwindled to thy former proportions that thou didst not know me; but when I sought to catch thine eye, twirledst thy chain and soughtest quarrel with a knave who was miscarrying a hod of mortar. Since, then, thou art so puffed up and I so crushed and flattened--what should be the difference between us? If there be any, I pri’ thee, lessen it. If at length thou hast grown to outweigh me, slice thyself down and throw me the parings. I but claim to compound a debt. I will cry quits for the wit I have lent thee if thou wilt give me the superabundance of favour and dignity which in truth thou seemest still somewhat too spindle-shanked of spirit to carry with grace. Nay, I will throw thee a good thing into the bargain. Thou lackest humility--a commodity whereof more than I know what to do with hath been of late forced upon me. Thou shalt have it all. “Indite me to dinner at the Castle by ten o’clock to-morrow. Till then I will be tongue-tied. If thou failest to send for me and to prove over many a pottle-pot that thou hast still the memory of old times and that thou hast but assumed the guise of a strutting feathered jackdaw as formerly thou didst that of a very owl of wisdom--on grounds of policy to be forgiven--then will I make it known by the town-crier of Windsor what an ass thou really art and ever will be. ‘Tis a secret worth hushing and known to none better than thine, forgivingly, “John Falstaff. “[In sober earnest, dear Ned, thou mayest serve me near him thou wottest of. I pri’ thee forget not old friends and comrades. Thou couldst not know me this morning--for reasons I guess at. But see me and it shall bring thee to no harm. J. F.] “At the Garter Inn, Friday, 1414. 2. H. V.” ANSWER TO THE FOREGOING. To Sir John Falstaff, Knight, be this deliverred.