3 Out.

Stand, Sir, and throw us what you have about you; if not, we'll make you Sir, and rifle you.

Speed.

Sir, we are undone; these are the villains that all the travellers 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 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 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 practicing to steal away a lady,

An heir and neice ally'd unto the Duke.

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 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 practices.
Come, go with us, we'll bring thee to our crews,
And shew thee all the treasure we have got;
Which, with our selves, shall rest at thy dispose. [Exeunt.

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