But at last he grew weary of the subject, and said he would fain
take a stroll in the streets, and breathe the outer air again. He
felt the stifling presence of encircling walls, and longed to get
out into the starlit night.
"The streets are none too safe at night for peaceful citizens,"
remarked Master Cale, with a shake of the head. "But I have a
peruke to take to a client who lives hard by Snowe Hill. If you
needs must go, let us go together; and gird on yonder sword ere you
start. For if men walk unarmed in the streets of a night, they are
thought fair game for all the rogues and bullies who prowl from
tavern to tavern seeking for diversion. They do not often attack an
armed man; but a quiet citizen who has left his sword behind him
seldom escapes without a sweating, if nothing worse befall him."
"And what is this sweating?" asked Tom, as the pair sallied forth
into the darkness of the streets.
Here and there an oil lamp shed a sickly glow for a short distance;
but, for the most part, the streets were very dim and dark. Lights
gleamed in a good many upper windows still; but below--where the
shutters were all up--darkness and silence reigned.
"Sweating," answered Cale, "is a favourite pastime with the bullies
of London streets.
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