_Resolved_, That the evil counsellors about the corn-cutter are popishly
affected and enemies to the State.
_Resolved_, That there be a public thanksgiving for the great
deliverance of Isaac's brow-antlers; and a solemn covenant drawn up to
defy the corn-cutter and all his works.
Thus the Quixotes of this age fight with the windmills of their own
heads, quell monsters of their own creation, make plots, and then
discover them; as who fitter to unkennel the fox than the terrier that
is part of him?
In the third place march their adventures; the Roundheads' legends, the
rebels' romance; stories of a larger size than the ears of their sect,
able to strangle the belief of a Solifidian.
I'll present them in their order. And first as a whiffler before the
show enter Stamford, one that trod the stage with the first, traversed
the ground, made a leg and exit. The country people took him for one
that by order of the Houses was to dance a morrice through the west of
England. Well, he's a nimble gentleman; set him upon Banks his horse in
a saddle rampant, and it is a great question which part of the Centaur
shows better tricks.
There was a vote passing to translate him with all his equipage into
monumental gingerbread; but it was crossed by the female committee
alleging that the valour of his image would bite their children by
the tongues.
This cubit and half of commander, by the help of a diurnal, routed his
enemies fifty miles off. It's strange you'll say, and yet 'tis generally
believed he would as soon do it at that distance as nearer hand.
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