It is not long since one of this company was apprehended,
who was before time reputed for a very honest and wealthy townsman; he
uttered also more horses than any of his trade, because he sold a
reasonable pennyworth and was a fairspoken man. It was his custom
likewise to say, if any man hucked hard with him about the price of a
gelding, "So God help me, gentlemen (or sir), either he did cost me so
much, or else, by Jesus, I stole him!" Which talk was plain enough;
and yet such was his estimation that each believed the first part of
his tale, and made no account of the latter, which was truer indeed.
Our third annoyers of the commonwealth are rogues, which do very great
mischief in all places where they become. For, whereas the rich only
suffer injury by the first two, these spare neither rich nor poor;
but, whether it be great gain or small, all is fish that cometh to net
with them. And yet, I say, both they and the rest are trussed up
apace. For there is not one year commonly wherein three hundred or
four hundred of them are not devoured and eaten up by the gallows in
one place and other.
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