What then may bee saide to condemne me? the common name (perchaunce) of the plaie, carying with it a continuall surmize of inconuenience? I need not here lay vnto your wisdome for my defence, that as well therein, as in all other demeanors, there is _vse_ which is allowed, and _abuse_, that in it selfe is insufferable. To commende the moderate vse hereof, I can induce nothing more then _custome_, and for the choise of the best obseruation, the company must cleare mee. Nowe in auoiding the enormities, the charge (if I misconceiue not) you gaue me, extended to the fellowship of the worst, in whose societie nothing is so common as ill vsage, and in whose pleasures, no one thing so ordinarie as vnthriftinesse, each of which occasioning that euill which I seeke to shunne, hath beene herein so far exempted, as I protest there resteth in veritie, no suspicion at all wherewith I may be charged.
But if nowe sir, you will reason of your tenauntes hurte, what therein may bee obiected that shall not euery waie further mee: who is hee that by nature could bee so restrained, but by the verie instinct thereof, hee will rather kill if neede bee, then stande to be killed? Hath not the Soueraigne mother of all our earthlie beeing, armed euen the verie Beastes themselues to their owne defence? hath not the Lyon his clawes, the Bull his hornes, the Dogge his teeth, and the Boare his tuskes? Doe not the worthiest sort of mankinde also contemne to be misprized, and naturallie couet where they bee enforced, immediatlie to be reuenged? Allotteth not the lawe vnto euerie man his right? Was it not by Conuention agreed, that the winner shoulde haue the wager? And did not the vniuersall sentence of the whole boord, adiudge it to me? What resteth any waies then to bee alleadged whereby in this action to accuse mee? Nay rather what is vnleft herein to condemne him, that being your tenaunt, hauing his liuing of you and yours, beholding as hee is to all yours, woulde yet be so vile conceipted against any of yours, as not with ordinary speeches alone, but with vnfitting tearmes, with violent force woulde goe about to withstande me, to hurt mee, yea desperatelie to confederate with another of my life and money to bereaue me.