Muf. [Making up to the Mobile.] Good people, here you are met together.

1 Rabble. Ay, we know that without your telling:  But why are we met together, doctor? for that’s it which no body here can tell.

2 Rabble. Why, to see one another in the dark; and to make holiday at midnight.

Muf. You are met, as becomes good Mussulmen, to settle the nation; for I must tell you, that, though your tyrant is a lawful emperor, yet your lawful emperor is but a tyrant.

Ant. What stuff he talks!

Must. ’Tis excellent fine matter, indeed, slave Antonio!  He has a rare tongue!  Oh, he would move a rock, or elephant!

Ant. What a block have I to work upon! [Aside.]—­But still, remember the jewels, sir; the jewels.

Must. Nay, that’s true, on the other side; the jewels must be mine.  But he has a pure fine way of talking; my conscience goes along with him, but the jewels have set my heart against him.

Muf. That your emperor is a tyrant, is most manifest; for you were born to be Turks, but he has played the Turk with you, and is taking your religion away.

2 Rabble. We find that in our decay of trade.  I have seen, for these hundred years, that religion and trade always go together.

Muf. He is now upon the point of marrying himself, without your sovereign consent:  And what are the effects of marriage?

3 Rabble. A scolding domineering wife, if she prove honest; and, if a whore, a fine gaudy minx, that robs our counters every night, and then goes out, and spends it upon our cuckold-makers.

Muf. No; the natural effects of marriage are children:  Now, on whom would he beget these children?  Even upon a Christian!  O, horrible! how can you believe me, though I am ready to swear it upon the Alcoran!  Yes, true believers, you may believe, that he is going to beget a race of misbelievers.

Must. That’s fine, in earnest; I cannot forbear hearkening to his enchanting tongue.

Ant. But yet remember—­

Must. Ay, ay, the jewels!  Now again I hate him; but yet my conscience makes me listen to him.

Muf. Therefore, to conclude all, believers, pluck up your hearts, and pluck down the tyrant.  Remember the courage of your ancestors; remember the majesty of the people; remember yourselves, your wives, and children; and, lastly, above all, remember your religion, and our holy Mahomet.  All these require your timeous assistance;—­shall I say, they beg it?  No; they claim it of you, by all the nearest and dearest ties of these three P’s, self-preservation, our property, and our prophet.—­Now answer me with an unanimous cheerful cry, and follow me, who am your leader, to a glorious deliverance.

Omnes. A Mufti, a Mufti! [Following him off the stage.