kern

O then belike she was old and gentle; and you rode like a kern of Ireland, your French hose off and in your strait strossers.

Yet it was held that the testimony of the common beadle of the parish, an officer of police, a vulgar, stupid kern, who stood before your own eyes, a very dolt to look on, in all the stark-staring hebetude of just wit enough to be spiteful—was to be credited as to the sense and meaning of an oration, his understanding was to be respected, and his representation trusted, where the Lord Chief Justice of England was in error.

The villain kernes Who keep me fettered here.