_Fal._ I call thee coward! I'll see thee damned ere I call thee coward: but I would give a thousand pound I could run as fast as thou canst. You are straight enough in the shoulders, you care not who sees your back: call you 140 that backing of your friends? A plague upon such backing! give me them that will face me. Give me a cup of sack: I am a rogue, if I drunk to-day. _Prince._ O villain! thy lips are scarce wiped since thou drunkest last. 145 _Fal._ All's one for that. [_He drinks._] A plague of all[2443] cowards, still say I. _Prince._ What's the matter? _Fal._ What's the matter! there be four of us here have[2444] ta'en a thousand pound this day morning.[2445] 150 _Prince._ Where is it, Jack? where is it? _Fal._ Where is it! taken from us it is: a hundred upon poor four of us.[2446] _Prince._ What, a hundred, man? _Fal._ I am a rogue, if I were not at half-sword with a[2447] 155 dozen of them two hours together. I have 'scaped by miracle.[2448] I am eight times thrust through the doublet, four through the hose; my buckler cut through and through; my sword hacked like a hand-saw--ecce signum! I never dealt better since I was a man: all would not do. A 160 plague of all cowards! Let them speak: if they speak more or less than truth, they are villains and the sons of darkness. _Prince._ Speak, sirs; how was it?[2449] _Gads._ We four set upon some dozen--[2450][2451] 165 _Fal._ Sixteen at least, my lord. _Gads._ And bound them.[2450] _Peto._ No, no, they were not bound. _Fal._ You rogue, they were bound, every man of them; or I am a Jew else, an Ebrew Jew.[2452] 170 _Gads._ As we were sharing, some six or seven fresh[2450][2453] men set upon us-- _Fal._ And unbound the rest, and then come in the[2454] other.[2455] _Prince._ What, fought you with them all?[2456] 175 _Fal._ All! I know not what you call all; but if I fought[2457] not with fifty of them, I am a bunch of radish: if there were[2458] not two or three and fifty upon poor old Jack, then am I no two-legged creature. _Prince._ Pray God you have not murdered some of[2459] 180 them. _Fal._ Nay, that's past praying for: I have peppered two of them; two I am sure I have paid, two rogues in buckram suits. I tell thee what, Hal, if I tell thee a lie, spit in my face, call me horse. Thou knowest my old 185 ward; here I lay, and thus I bore my point. Four rogues[2460] in buckram let drive at me-- _Prince._ What, four? thou saidst but two even now. _Fal._ Four, Hal; I told thee four. _Poins._ Ay, ay, he said four. 190