1 Out-law.
Fellows, stand fast: I see a passenger.

2 Out.
If there be ten, shrink not, but down with 'em. Enter Valentine and Speed.

3 Out.
Stand, Sir, and throw us what you have about you;
If not, we'll make you, Sir, and rifle you.^{6 note}

Speed.

Sir, we are undone; these are the villains, that all the travellers do fear so much.

Val.

My friends,—

1 Out.

That's not so, Sir; we are your enemies.

2 Out.

Peace; we'll hear him.

3 Out.

Ay, by my beard, will we; for he is a proper man.

Val.
Then know, that I have little wealth to lose:
A man I am, cross'd with adversity;
My riches are these poor habiliments,
Of which if you should here disfurnish me,
You take the sum and substance that I have.

2 Out.
Whither travel you?

Val.
To Verona.

1 Out.
Whence came you?

Val.
From Milan.

3 Out.
Have you long sojourn'd there?

Val.
Some sixteen months; and longer might have staid,
If crooked fortune had not thwarted me.

1 Out.
What, were you banish'd thence?

Val.
I was.

2 Out.
For what offence?

Val.
For that, which now torments me to rehearse:
I kill'd a man, whose death I much repent;
But yet I slew him manfully in fight,
Without false vantage or base treachery.

1 Out.
Why ne'er repent it, if it were done so.
But were you banish'd for so small a fault?

Val.
I was, and held me glad of such a doom.

1 Out.
Have you the tongues?

Val.
My youthful travel therein made me happy,
Or else I often had been miserable.

3 Out.
By the bare scalp of* ^note Robin Hood's fat friar,
This fellow were a King for our wild faction.

1 Out.

We'll have him. Sirs, a word.

Speed.

Master be one of them: it's an honourable kind of thievery.

Val.

Peace, Villain.

2 Out.

Tell us this; have you any thing to take to?

Val.

Nothing, but my fortune.

3 Out.
Know then, that some of us are gentlemen,
Such as the fury of ungovern'd youth
Thrust from the company of awful men;^{7 note}
Myself was from Verona banished,
For practising to steal away a lady,
An heir, and near ally'd unto the Duke.^{8 note}

2 Out.
And I from Mantua, for a gentleman
Whom, in my mood, I stabb'd unto the heart.

1 Out.
And I for such like petty crimes as these.
But to the purpose;—for we cite our faults,
That they may hold excus'd our lawless lives;
And, partly, seeing you are beautify'd
With goodly shape, and by your own report
A linguist; and a man of such perfection,
As we do in our quality much want;—

2 Out.
Indeed, because you are a banish'd man,
Therefore, above the rest, we parley to you;
Are you content to be our General?
To make a virtue of necessity,
And live, as we do, in the wilderness?

3 Out.
What say'st thou? wilt thou be of our consort?
Say, ay; and be the captain of us all:
We'll do thee homage, and be rul'd by thee;
Love thee as our commander, and our king.

1 Out.
But if thou scorn our courtesy, thou dy'st.

2 Out.
Thou shalt not live to brag what we have offer'd.

Val.
I take your offer, and will live with you;
Provided, that you do no outrages
On silly women, or poor passengers.

3 Out.
No, we detest such vile base practices.
Come, go with us, we'll bring thee to our crews.
And shew thee all the treasure we have got;
Which, with ourselves, shall rest at thy dispose. [Exeunt.

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