Would pare the soldier's bread, and cross his reckoning!
ISOLANI.
How when I went to court seven years ago,
To see about new horses for our regiment,
How from one antichamber to another
They dragg'd me on, and left me by the hour
To kick my heels among a croud of simpering,
Feast-fatten'd slaves, as if I had come thither
A mendicant suitor for the crumbs of favor
That fall beneath their tables. And, at last,
Whom should they send me but a Capuchin!
Straight I began to muster up my sins
For absolution—but no such luck for me!
This was the man, this Capuchin, with whom
I was to treat concerning th' army horses.
And I was forc'd at last to quit the field,
The business unaccomplish'd. Afterwards
The Duke procur'd me in three days, what I
Could not obtain in thirty at Vienna.
QUESTENBERG.
Too well I know we have still accounts to settle.
ILLO.
Finish one's work by soft means; every trifle
Must not be blacken'd into sacrilege.
If we should wait till you, in solemn council,
With due deliberation had selected
