_Tank_. With all my heart; but I will pay off the debts of the nation. _May_. Come to the tavern then:-- There, while brisk wine improves our conversation, We at our pleasure will reform the nation. _Trap_. There ends act the third. [_Exeunt_ Sir HARRY, TANKARD, _and_ Mayor. _Fust_. Pray, sir, what's the moral of this act? _Trap_. And you really don't know? _Fust_. No, really. _Trap_. Then I really will not tell you; but come, sir, since you cannot find that out, I'll try whether you can find out the plot; for now it is just going to begin to open, it will require a very close attention, I assure you; and the devil take me if I give you any assistance. _Fust_. Is not the fourth act a little too late to open the plot, Mr Trapwit? _Trap_. Sir, 'tis an error on the right side: I have known a plot open in the first act, and the audience, and the poet too, forget it before the third was over: now, sir, I am not willing to burden either the audience's memory or my own; for they may forget all that is hitherto past, and know full as much of the plot as if they remembered it. _Promp_. Call Mr Mayor, Mrs Mayoress, and Miss. _Enter_ Mayor, Mrs _and_ Miss Mayoress. _Mrs M_. Oh! have I found you at last, sir? I have been hunting for you this hour. _May_. Faith, my dear, I wish you had found me sooner; I have been drinking to the good old cause with Sir Harry and the squire: you would have been heartily welcome to all the company. _Mrs M_. Sir, I shall keep no such company; I shall converse with no clowns or country squires. _Miss M_. My mama will converse with no Jacobites. _May_. But, my dear, I have some news for you; I have got a place for myself now. _Mrs M_. O ho! then you will vote for my lord at last? _May_. No, my dear; Sir Harry is to give me a place. _Mrs M_. A place in his dog-kennel? _May_. No, 'tis such a one as you never could have got me from my lord; I am to be made an embassador. _Mrs M_. What, is Sir Harry going to change sides then, that he is to have all this interest? _May_. No, but the sides are going to be changed; and Sir Harry is to be--I don't know what to call him, not I--some very great man; and as soon as he is a very great man I am to be made an embassador of. _Mrs M_. Made an ass of! Will you never learn of me that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush? _May_. Yes, but I can't find that you had the bird in hand; if that had been the case I don't know what I might have done; but I am sure any man's promise is as good as a courtier's. _Mrs M_. Look'ye, Mr Embassador that is to be; will you vote as I would have you or no? I am weary of arguing with a fool any longer; so, sir, I tell you you must vote for my lord and the colonel, or I'll make the house too hot to hold you; I'll see whether my poor family is to be ruined because you have whims. _Miss M_. I know he is a Jacobite in his heart.