didst utterly forget to serve them in what was good, and didst fall
in with the tyrant Diabolus against Shaddai the King, against his
captains, and all his host, to the dishonour of Shaddai, the breach
of his law, and the endangering of the destruction of the famous
town of Mansoul. What sayest thou to this indictment? Art thou
guilty or not guilty?

Then said Forget-Good: 'Gentlemen, and at this time my judges, as
to the indictment by which I stand of several crimes accused before
you, pray attribute my forgetfulness to mine age, and not to my
wilfulness; to the craziness of my brain, and not to the
carelessness of my mind; and then I hope I may be by your charity
excused from great punishment, though I be guilty.'

Then said the Court, 'Forget-Good, Forget-Good, thy forgetfulness
of good was not simply of frailty, but of purpose, and for that
thou didst loathe to keep virtuous things in thy mind. What was
bad thou couldst retain, but what was good thou couldst not abide
to think of; thy age, therefore, and thy pretended craziness, thou
makest use of to blind the court withal, and as a cloak to cover
thy knavery. But let us hear what the witnesses have to say for
the King against the prisoner at the bar. Is he guilty of this
indictment, or not?'

Hate. My lord, I have heard this Forget-Good say, that he could
never abide to think of goodness, no, not for a quarter of an hour.

Clerk. Where did you hear him say so?

Hate. In All-base Lane, at a house next door to the sign of the