"Venison! o' my conscience!
Buck! or burn me alive!


The three splashes in the circumference are verily and indeed
venison; buck, moreover,--and Charlecote buck, upon my oath!"

Then carefully tasting the protuberance in the centre, he spat it
out, crying, -

"Pho! pho! villain! villain!" and shaking his fist at the culprit.

Whereat the said culprit smiled and winked, and said off-hand, -

"Save thy spittle, Silas! It would supply a gaudy mess to the
hungriest litter; but it would turn them from whelps into wolvets.
'T is pity to throw the best of thee away. Nothing comes out of thy
mouth that is not savoury and solid, bating thy wit, thy sermons,
and thy promises."

It was my duty to write down the very words, irreverent as they are,
being so commanded. More of the like, it is to be feared, would
have ensued, but that Sir Thomas did check him, saying, shrewdly, -

"Young man! I perceive that if I do not stop thee in thy courses,
thy name, being involved in thy company's, may one day or other
reach across the county; and folks may handle it and turn it about,
as it deserveth, from Coleshill to Nuneaton, from Bromwicham to