Chapter 13

"Masters, it is proved already
That you are little better than false knaves;
And it will go near to be thought so, shortly."

_Dogberry_.

The sudden appearance of the city constable, a functionary whose person was
not unknown to most of the company, brought every man at table to his feet,
the Rev. Mr. Worden, Dirck and myself, included. For my own part, I saw no
particular reason for alarm, though it at once struck me that this visit
might have some connection with the demolished supper, since the law does
not, in all cases, suffer a man to reclaim even his own, by trick or
violence. As for the constable himself, a short, compact, snub-nosed,
Dutch-built person, who spoke English as if it disagreed with his bile, he
was the coolest of the whole party.

"Vell, Mr. Guert," he said, with a sort of good-natured growl of authority,
"here I moost coome ag'in! Mr. Mayor woult be happy to see you, and ter
Tominie, dat ist of your party; and ter gentleman dat acted as clerk, ven
he lectured old Doortje, Mr. Mayor's cook."

Mr. Mayor's cook! Here, then, a secret was out, with a vengeance! Guert had
not reclaimed his own lost supper, which, having passed into the hands of
the Philistines, was hopelessly gone; but he had actually stolen and eaten
the supper prepared for the Mayor of Albany,--Peter Cuyler, a man of note,
and standing, in all respects; a functionary who had held his office from
time immemorial;--the lamp was the symbol of authority, and not the sign of
an inn, or an eating-house;--the supper, moreover, was never prepared for
one man, or one family, but had certainly been got up for the honourable
treatment of a goodly company;--fifteen stout men had mainly appeased their
appetites on it; and the fragments were that moment under discussion among
half-a-dozen large-mouthed, shining negro faces, in the kitchen! Under
circumstances like these, I looked inquiringly at the Rev. Mr. Worden--and
the Rev. Mr. Worden looked inquiringly at me. There was no apparent remedy,
however; but, after a brief consultation with Guert, we, the summoned
parties, took our hats and followed Dogberry to the residence of Mr. Mayor.

"You are not to be uneasy, gentlemen, at this little interruption of our
amusements," said Guert, dropping in between Mr. Worden and myself, as we
proceeded on our way, "these things happening very often among us. You are
innocent, you know, under all circumstances, since you supposed that
the supper was our own--brought back by direct means, instead of having
recourse to the shabby delays of the law."

"And whose supper may this have been, sir, that we have just eaten!"
demanded Mr. Worden.

"Why, there can be