1 Out.
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 that you have about ye:
If not, we'll make you, Sir, and rifle you.

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 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 Millan.

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.

2 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 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:
My self was from Verona banished,
For practising to steal away a Lady,
An Heir, and Neice, ally'd unto the Duke.

2 Out.
And I from Mantua, for a Gentleman,
Who, 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 Courtesie, 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 Practises.
Come, go with us, we'll bring thee to our Crews,
And shew thee all the Treasure we have got;
Which, with our selves, all rest at thy Dispose. [Exeunt.

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