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STORY OF HENRY THE VIIIth.
KING OF ENGLAND.
As King Henry VIII. was hunting in Windsor-forest one day, he desired to be left by himrelf. Upon which, he struck down about dinner-time to Reading, where he disguised himself in the habit of a yeoman of the King’s guard; for one of whom, by his stature and figure, he might well pass. He went to the abbey, and was invited to dine at the Abbot’s table. A Sir-Loin of beef was set before him (so knighted, saith tradition, by this King Henry) on which his Majesty laid on lustily, not disgracing the coat of a king's beef-eater, for whom he was taken. “Well-fare thy heart, quoth the Abbot, and here is a cup of sack, I remember the health of his Grace your master. I would give an hundred pounds, upon the condition that I could feed so heartily on beef as you do. Alas! my weak and squeamish stomach will hardly digest the wing of a small rabbit or chicken." The King merely pledged him, and heartily thanking him for his good cheer after dinner departed undiscovered.
Some weeks after, the Abbot was sent for by a king's messenger, brought up to London, clapped in the Tower, kept close prifoner, and fed for several days with bread and water only. The Abbot’s mind was sorely disquieted with thoughts and suspicions how he might have incurred the King’s displeasure. At last the day came on which a Sir-Loin of beef was set before him; on which the Abbot fed like a farmer of his grange, and verified the proverb, that "two hungry meals make the third a glutton.” In bolts King Henry, out of a private lobby, where he had placed himself the invisible spectator of the Aobot's beliaviour. “My Lord, quoth the king, lay down immediately your hundred pounds in gold, or else there shall be no going hence for you for all the days of your life. I have been your physician; I have cured you of your squeamish stomach and here, as I deserve I demand my reward for the same.”
The Abbot, glad to escape so, deposited the cash, and returned to Reading, murmuring, at the severity of the doctor’s regimen, and the exorbitance of his fees.
