He  has  a  good  deal  of  liberty,  however,  for  he  still
occasionally  haunts  the  taverns  in  Fleet  Street,
probably  within  the  "  rules  "  of  the  prison  or  under
the  ward  of  a  keeper.  Brother  Francis  is  appealed  to
daily  by  letter,  and  pending  his  reply  all  the  old  boon
companions  come  in  and  out  of  the  prison,  dine  there,
drink  there,  and  get  drunk  in  the  vaults,  Benson  and
Catherine  Wilson  coming  every  day  with  clothes,
books,  and  comfort.  At  the  end  of  the  month  ot
May  the  parson  brother,  Francis,  arrives,  and  after
a  month  of  negotiation  at  the  Custom  House  and
the  law  courts,  and  much  drinking-   and  dining  as


RICHARD   BERE.  365

usual,  a  bond  is  signed  and  sealed  at  the  "  Three
Tuns "  tavern,  "  Sales  standing  my  friend,"  and
Richard   Bere  is  free  again.
But  imprudent  Richard,  after  a  sharp  fit  of  the
gout,  soon  falls  into  his  old  habits  again,  and  on
the  6th  of  September  confesses  that  he  got  into  a
row  at  the  "Dog"  Tavern  in  Drury  Lane  "about
drinking  the  Prince  of  Wales'  health,"  an  indiscreet
thine  enough  considering  that  his  Custom  House
accounts  were  still  unsettled,  and  his  own  petition
to  the  Treasury  unanswered.  On  the  1st  of  July,
whilst  he  and  his  friend  Sales  are  dining  at  the
"  Crown,"  the  constables  walk  Sales  off  to  prison,
"  and  then  go  to  the  '  Globe  '  Tavern  and  arrest  his
landlady,  and  Andrew  Lloyd  the  author."  And  so
the  diary  goes  on  ;  his  accounts  still  unpaid,  but
Richard  full  of  the  tobacco  business,  with  petitions
to  the  King  and  interviews  with  Treasury  officials.
