I can look in a man's face and pick his purse,
And tell new tidings that was never true, i-wis,
For my hood is all lined with lesing[43].

Nevertheless once he was very nearly caught. And he narrates the
incident with so much circumstantial detail that it would be a pity not
to have his own words.

_Imagination._ Yes, once I stall a horse in the field,
And leapt on him for to have ridden my way.
At the last a baily me met and beheld,
And bad me stand: then was I in a fray[44].
He asked whither with that horse I would gone;
And then I told him it was mine own.
He said I had stolen him; and I said nay.
This is, said he, my brother's hackney.
For, and I had not excused me, without fail,
By our lady, he would have lad me straight to jail.
And then I told him the horse was like mine,
A brown bay, a long mane, and did halt behine;
Thus I told him, that such another horse I did lack;
And yet I never saw him, nor came on his back.
So I delivered him the horse again.
And when he was gone, then was I fain[45]:
For and I had not excused me the better,
I know well I should have danced in a fetter.

_Freewill._ And said he no more to thee but so?

_Imagination._ Yea, he pretended me much harm to do;