CHAPTER II 



[fffrst 



Pise. So, Sir, now we have got to the top of the hill out 

 of town, look about you, and tell me how you like the 

 country. 



VIAT. Bless me, what mountains are here ! Are we 

 not in Wales ? 



Pise. No, but in almost as mountainous a country ; 

 and yet these hills, though high, bleak, and craggy, breed 

 and feed good beef and mutton, above ground, and afford 

 good store of lead within. 



VIAT. They had need of all those commodities to make 

 amends for the ill landskip : but I hope our way does not 

 lie over any of these, for I dread a precipice. 



Pise. Believe me, but it does, and down one especially, 

 that will appear a little terrible to a stranger : though the 

 way is passable enough, and so passable, that we who are 

 natives of these mountains, and acquainted with them, 

 disdain to alight. 



VIAT. I hope, though, that a foreigner is privileged to 

 use his own discretion, and that I may have the liberty 

 to entrust my neck to the fidelity of my own feet, rather 

 than to those of my horse, for I have no more 

 at home. 



Pise. 'Twere hard else. But in the meantime, I think 

 'twere best, while this way is pretty even, to mend our 

 pace, that we may be past that hill I speak of ; to the end 

 your apprehension may not be doubled, for want of light 

 to discern the easiness of the descent. 



VIAT. I am willing to put forward as fast as my beast 



259 



