10
came on, and hearing the bushes rustle, made a halt to see what was the cause, when out leaped the rogues, and encompassed him; after they had uttered many terrible words, and reviled him they made in to grapple with him, who being ignorant of their design, and scorning to fear, took the two foremost, one in each hand, and by main force beat their heads together, that they rang like a barber's bason; so that being stunned by such lusty knocks, after staggering some few paces, down they fell, and having likewise wrested a good weapon from one of them, he sat upon the other two with such fury, giving them several wounds, and finding the blood run about their ears, they fell upon their knees, and cried for mercy, and so did the other two when they recovered from their trance; yet they could not obtain their will until he had thrashed them into a confession of the whole matter; and thereby became sensible of the love Lucinda bore him, and that she might hear of what had happened on this occasion, and their villainy to be rewarded with disgrace, he made them strip and with such tackling as their garments afforded, he bound them to four trees ⟨stark⟩ naked, where those hot brained lovers ⟨took⟩ a cooling till the morning, which discovered the whole intrigue.
