_Wood._ Sir, I should now make a speech to you in my own defence; but the short of all is this: If you can forgive what is past, your hand, and I'll endeavour to make up the breach betwixt you and your mistress: If not, I am ready to give you the satisfaction of a gentleman. _Limb._ Sir, I am a peaceable man, and a good Christian, though I say it, and desire no satisfaction from any man. Pug and I are partly agreed upon the point already; and therefore lay thy hand upon thy heart, Pug, and, if thou canst, from the bottom of thy soul, defy mankind, naming no body, I'll forgive thy past enormities; and, to give good example to all Christian keepers, will take thee to be my wedded wife; and thy four hundred a-year shall be settled upon thee, for separate maintenance. _Trick._ Why, now I can consent with honour. _Aldo._ This is the first business that was ever made up without me. _Wood._ Give you joy, Mr Bridegroom. _Limb._ You may spare your breath, sir, if you please; I desire none from you. It is true, I am satisfied of her virtue, in spite of slander; but, to silence calumny, I shall civilly desire you henceforth, not to make a chapel-of-ease of Pug's closet. _Pleas._ [_Aside._] I'll take care of false worship, I'll warrant him. He shall have no more to do with Bel and the Dragon. _Brain._ Come hither, wedlock, and let me seal my lasting love upon thy lips. Saintly has been seduced, and so has Tricksy; but thou alone art kind and constant. Hitherto I have not valued modesty, according to its merit; but hereafter, Memphis shall not boast a monument more firm than my affection. _Wood._ A most excellent reformation, and at a most seasonable time! The moral of it is pleasant, if well considered. Now, let us to dinner.--Mrs Saintly, lead the way, as becomes you, in your own house. [_The rest going off._ _Pleas._ Your hand, sweet moiety. _Wood._ And heart too, my comfortable importance. Mistress and wife, by turns, I have possessed: He, who enjoys them both in one, is blessed. Footnotes: 1. The Mahommedan doctrine of predestination is well known. They reconcile themselves to all dispensations, by saying, "They are written on the forehead" of him, to whose lot they have fallen. 2. The custom of drinking _supernaculum_, consisted in turning down the cup upon the thumb-nail of the drinker after his pledge, when, if duly quaffed off, no drop of liquor ought to appear upon his nail. With that she set it to her nose, And off at once the rumkin goes; No drops beside her muzzle falling, Until that she had supped it all in: Then turning't topsey on her thumb, Says--look, here's _supernaculum._ _Cotton's Virgil travestie._ This custom seems to have been derived from the Germans, who held, that if a drop appeared on the thumb, it presaged grief and misfortune to the person whose health was drunk.