, arch fellow, whose pack and oaken ell wand, studded duly
with brass points, denoted him to be of Autolycus's profession, occupied a good
deal of the attention, and furnished much of the amusement, of the evening. The
pedlars of those days, it must be remembered, were men of far greater importance
than the degenerate and degraded hawkers of our modern times. It was by means of
these peripatetic venders that the country trade, in the finer manufactures used
in female dress particularly, was almost entirely carried on; and if a merchant
of this description arrived at the dignity of travelling with a pack-horse, he
was a person of no small consequence, and company for the most substantial
yeoman or Franklin whom he might meet in his wanderings.
    The pedlar of whom we speak bore, accordingly, an active and unrebuked share
in the merriment to which the rafters of the bonny Black Bear of Cumnor
resounded. He had his smile with pretty Mistress Cicely, his broad laugh with
mine host, and his jest upon dashing Master Goldthred, who, though indeed
without any such benevolent intention on his own part, was the general butt of
the evening. The pedlar and he were closely engaged in a dispute upon the
preference due to the Spanish nether-stock over the black Gascoigne hose, and
mine host had just winked to the guests around him, as who should say, »You will
have mirth presently, my masters,« when the trampling of horses was heard in the
courtyard, and the hostler was loudly summoned, with a few of the newest oaths
then in vogue, to add force to the invocation. Out tumbled Will Hostler, John
Tapster, and all the militia of the inn, who had slunk from their posts in order
to collect some scattered crumbs of the mirth which was flying about among the
customers. Out into the yard sallied mine host himself also, to do fitting
salutation to his new guests; and presently returned, ushering into the
apartment his own worthy nephew, Michael Lambourne, pretty tolerably drunk, and
having under his escort the astrologer. Alasco, though still a little old man,
had, by altering his gown to a riding-dress, trimming his beard and eyebrows,
and so forth, struck at least a score of years from his apparent age, and might
now seem an active man of sixty, or little upwards. He appeared at present
exceedingly anxious, and had insisted much with Lambourne that they should not
enter the inn, but go straight forward to the place of their destination. But
Lambourne would not be controlled. »By
