*"I saved this fellow," quoth he, "from the gallows when he ran away from his last master, because I thought he was harshly treated; but the rogue was no sooner safe under my protection than he began to lie, pilfer, and steal like the devil.

When I first set him up in a warm house he had hardly put up his sign when he began to debauch my best customers from me.

*Then it was his constant practice to rob my fish-ponds, not only to feed his family, but to trade with the fishmongers.

I connived at the fellow till he began to tell me that they were his as much as mine.

In my manor of *Eastcheap, because it lay at some distance from my constant inspection, he broke down my fences, robbed my orchards, and beat my servants." * Complaints against the Dutch for encroachment in trade, fishery, East Indies, etc.