Yet hath heaven need of her needy sons, and the meanest of Olympus, denizens hath his part to play amidst the earthlings.

Know, then, that on the second day after I had ceased to eat my bread at her Majesty's cost, I met, in eager haste, a certain Irish Achilles who knoweth more of war than verse, and whose arm is more terrible with the sword than is my hand with the pen.

This Sir Ludar--such is gratitude and reverence!--_O tempora! O mores_!--would have given me the go-by, had I not stood boldly in his way, that he might at least see how great an honour he avoided.

When he saw me, to be brief, my Hollander, he honoured himself by seeing in me the god Mercury, who beareth messages to the dim regions of the earth.

He bade me tell thee, by a means the receipt hereof will apprise thee, that the cause goeth perilously.