"That graceless knave of a sacristan!" said the Mayor.

But the King, that had a high stomach and could not hate any that he despised, bid, "Take him forth and set the knave in the stocks"; and so, promising the prior his life, he caused him to be brought forth.

So the proud lady of Mortain looked down upon Beltane in amaze, for there was none in all the Duchy, knight, noble or princeling, who dared gainsay her lightest word; wherefore, I say, she stared upon this bold forest knave with his golden hair and gentle eyes, his curved lips and square chin; and in eyes and mouth and chin was a look of masterfulness, challenging, commanding.

Amongst us ye shall find men new broke from the gallows-foot and desperate knaves for whom the dungeon yawns.

Had I seen these brick-and-mortar knaves at their process of destruction, at the plucking of every pannel I should have felt the varlets at my heart.

I shall take it with me, for it will be better used for charity and the good of my merry band than in the enriching of such knaves as these."

So now do I consign yon archer-knave to the lowest pit of Acherondamnatus est, amen!

And now I trust that I have made both my position and my intentions very plain, and have written myself down neither more of a fool nor less of a knave than circumstances (and one's own infirmities) combined to make me at this juncture of my career.

He is the most amusing knave on the coast.

Comest thou not to me with a great array of men-at-arms and retainers, and yet art not able to take a single band of lusty knaves without armor on breast, in thine own county!

"Get thee gone straightway to thy room, and I will bring out this knave by his ears."

And that is why I chose such a night to come hither, knowing these knaves like dry skins, but never thinking that the wind would blow like this.

There is this to be said even for the pride his grandfather had taught him, that it had always hald him above low indulgences; and though he had dallied with kings, queens, and knaves through all the mazes of Faro, Rondeau, and Craps, he had done it loftily; but now he maintained a peaceful estrangement from all.

The noble patricians should give them a lesson in modesty, by sending every tenth knave among them to the galleys.

His good parts lie dead upon his hands, for want of matter to employ them, and at the best are not commended but pitied, as virtues ill placed, and we may say of him, "Tis an honest man, but tis pity;" and yet those that call him so will trust a knave before him.

He also seems to have several knaves up his sleeve.

It is evident, for instance, that an idiot could neither understand the hidden doctrines that might be communicated to him, nor could he so secure such portions as he might remember, in the "depositary of his heart," as to prevent the designing knave from worming them out of him; for, as the wise Solomon has said, "a fool's mouth is his destruction, and his lips are the snare of his soul.

If the Queen knew how her money was eaten and drunk, by the idle knaves aboard her, she would send them all to hunt for freebooters among the islands.

"Oh, how much better would it have been," cried the soul of the old Florentine, "had my countrymen still kept it as it was, and not brought upon themselves the stench of the peasant knave out of Aguglione, and that other from Signa, with his eye to a bribe!

"Hearkee now, good youth, hath there passed thee by ever a ribald in an escalloped hoodan unhallowed, long-legged, scurvy archer knave astride a fair white ass, my son?" "Truly," nodded Beltane, "we parted company scarce an hour since.