which sat women—even a grade lower than
Doll Tear-sheet, who had run her race, and
was then in the hospital. It was a bad
house, shunned by every one who respected
himself, and only frequented by those who
had no character to lose. Nym and Pistol,
when not quarrelling were gambling, then
disputing about their bettings; and, though
both arrant cowards, threatening to " scour
their rapiers" on each other, then compounding
in money and drink; and patching up a
hollow peace, while Dame Quickly was ever
threatening to shut up the house. Even she
had been dragged off to prison to account for
the death of some customer, and what little
she possessed had gone to obtain her liberty.
After this, she fell so low, that she married
Pistol: a fellow whom Doll had many a
time called "cut-purse cheat, and juggler."
And, now, she could no longer lift up her
head, and say with pride, as when Quickly
was alive, " I am an honest man's wife; " for,
a greater cur, and a more thorough-grained
rogue than Pistol, had never set foot on the
causeway of Eastcheap.

Last scene of all—amid all this vice,
wretchedness, poverty, and misery—poor,
broken-hearted Falstaff, was one day brought
in from the Fleet prison, by Bardolph, to die.
Prince Hal was now king, and had not only
shaken off all his old companions, but had
threatened them with punishment, if they
came a-near him. Poor Jack was lying
upstairs in a dilapidated chamber, on a bed, the
hangings of which, had long before been sold
by Nell, to supply him with money. On
that April day, when his old boon companion
rode by on his way from the Tower, to be
crowned king at Westminster, Bardolph, his
nose paler than in former days, stood on the
broken balcony, and sighed as the procession
passed, while he thought of his kind old master,
dying neglected within. Even the young
king, after raising his eyes for a moment to
glance at the house where he had held so
many of his mad merrymakings, seemed
saddened when he beheld its altered condition;
nor did he raise his head again, until his attention
was roused by the surrounding nobles,
to the gaudy pageant which stretched across
Grass-church Street.

There was a smell of May in the " simple
market of Bucklersbury," and whenever
Falstaff sat amid the buzzing of flies in his
stifling chamber, " babbling of green fields,"
thither faithful Bardolph would go, if he
could either beg, or borrow, a groat, and
purchase flowers to deck and sweeten his
apartment; for, they set the poor invalid
talking of the summer-arbour in which he
had eaten last year's pippins with Shallow,
and of the pleasant head-lands that were then
waving with red wheat. And now his clothes
were a world too wide for him; he could
have buckled that villainous boy within his
belt, who had no pity for him, but when
he complained of feeling cold, would with
a grin, bid Bardolph " put his nose between
the sheets, and do the office of a warming-pan."
The low lodgers were ever running
in and out, slamming the doors all day
long. Pistol was constantly quarrelling with
Nym, and his own wife, and begrudging
every little kindness she showed to Falstaff;
and she, in her half-crazed way, muddled
with drink, and ill-clad, would, every now
and then, come hurrying in, with her hair
hanging about her face; fond, foolish, and
maudlin; telling him how she should never
be happy any more, since she couldn't have
him; and he, feeling that he had brought
her to that state, would sit and wish that
he had his life to live over again, while he
vowed within himself, if such a thing could
be, how differently he would act. Sometimes
Sneak, the street musician, would half
madden him, by the horrible noise he made,
while playing to the drunken guests in. the
broken balcony: and old Jane Nightwork.
would be constantly moving about him in
her dirt and ugliness. Sometimes he would
repeat to himself the words Prince Hal
uttered, when he thought he was dead, while
lying beside Percy on the battle-field of
Shrewsbury, and say with a sigh, '' I could
have better spared a better man." Then
Nell would bid him be of good cheer, and
as he " fumbled with the sheets, and played
with the flowers," would, poor simple soul,
try to amuse him, by telling him of the mad
pranks he and Hal played in her younger
days, unconscious that the awakening of such
recollections pierced him like the wound of
a dagger. All those hollow friends, who had
buzzed about him like summer flies in the
sunshine of his prosperity, had now forsaken
him, leaving only Nell and Bardolph behind,
while the nose of the latter paled and grew
sharper, through weary vigils, and affectionate
offices, smoothing his pillow, straightening
his white hair, and holding the sack-cup to
his lips. When he expired, true-hearted Bar-
dolph, with the tears in his eyes, exclaimed—
"Would, I were with him, wheresome'er he
is, either in heaven or in hell." A godless
prayer, which the accusing angel would see
recorded with a sigh, for there must have been
something loveable about poor Jack, to have
awakened such a wish.

They would bury him in the old City
churchyard, at the foot of the bridge, for he
would be too heavy a corpse to carry far.
Bardolph and Nell would be chief mourners
at the funeral, though Nym and Pistol would
make some pretended show of grief. Even
by the grave-side, that evil boy would
keep on jesting about Bardolph's nose; and
the good-natured fellow, who had served
Falstaff faithfully for near forty years, would
answer, that " the fuel was gone that maintained
that fire," for his drink " was all the
riches he got in his service." Keech the
butcher's wife, and Smooth the silkman,
would, in remembrance of the many merry