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the grace to act up to it. I trust, however, now, that ALMIGHTY GOD will give me strength to put into practice my present good resolutions, and henceforth I'm determined to live as I ought to do, and to strive day and night till I succeed in bringing our rector and his family back again. Mother, I have been a bad one, and have caused you and father nothing but sorrow and trouble, you shall find me now a different man." At this moment the shot from the church, which wounded Armstrong and Stack, came suddenly upon their ears, and at once awakened feelings of alarm in Mrs. Granger and her son. "I fear me," said she, "there's bad work going on there; 'twill end in bloodshed, I feel sure." Their conversation was shortly after interrupted by the arrival of the soldiers and attendants from the church, who, with many jokes at the unsuccessful attempts of the villagers, and the wounds they had inflicted upon two of them, recounted what had taken place.

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MRS. Granger soon left the rectory, having obtained from John a promise that he would follow her as soon as he was able, which he hoped to effect at night, after all in the house were in bed. Before, however, John could manage this, it was fated that he should undergo another

ordeal of no pleasant nature with his present masters. Shortly after their return from church, he was sent for into the dining room, where the servants of the Parliament and the enforcers of their privileges, the soldiers, were talking over the affairs of the morning, washing down their narration with occasional draughts of ale from the rector's cellar.

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"Well, my lad," said one of them, as soon as John entered the room, we have sent for you to tell you that you must get this petition signed. You'll have a hard matter to do it, I fear, for they appear to be a refractory set here; but we have peppered one or two of them this morning, which perhaps may make the others more submissive. However, you must take it, and get signatures to it, by some means or other." "Flease gentlemen," said John, "what is the petition about?" "Oh, it is

about papists and rebels, and matters of that kind. But you can read it and see." John did so as well as he was able, which, to tell the truth, was not over well, and discovered that it was a petition to the Parliament requesting them to take such measures as would free the petitioners from the fears they entertained from the present attempts of the papists. But although such was the subject-matter of the petition as drawn up for the signature of the good people of Stillby, it was not the petition which was eventually to be presented to the Parliament. That was invisible to the eyes of our friend, John Granger, being at the present moment in one of the drawers of the table where the commissioners were sitting, and having for its object the ejectment of Mr. Peters, the rector of Stillby, as a papist, malignant, and rebel.

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Whereas," it set forth, "we, the undersigned inhabitants of the parish of Stillby, do declare, to the best of our belief, that the Reverend Joshua Peters is a papist, malignant, and rebel; and that by his conduct and discourses in this parish he has stirred up the minds of the people to disaffection and sedition, whereof a late riot against the constituted authorities is a proof: we, therefore, humbly beseech your honourable house to take into

your gracious consideration our present evil state, and remove from us the said Mr. Peters, in whose stead your petitioners would beseech your honourable house to send among us whom in our hearts we believe to be a godly man, and one who will preach faithfully the Gospel, of which we have been so long deprived."

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The plan was this: John was to go out among the rishioners and procure as many signatures as he could, to the petition against the papists and rebels, which it was thought that the people of Stillby would sign, more from fear of the presence of the soldiers and the sequestrators among them, who had many opportunities of annoying such as refused to act according to their wishes, than from any knowledge of the merits of what they were signing. The petition signed was itself to be cut off, and this one above, for the ejectment of Mr. Peters and the appointment of a successor, was to be substituted in its place, and sent up to Parliament as the petition of the parishioners of Stillby, &c.* John took the paper which was given to him, and walked out of the room apparently discontented with the office which was assigned him. He was told to wait in an outer room until he received full orders as to the service in which he

was to be engaged. Accordingly, he returned to the little room in which had taken place the interview with his mother, which we have narrated. As soon as he had left the dining room, there was a consultation among the party there assembled, as to the propriety of sending out John at once among the people in their present disturbed state. Some thought it better to wait a short time, as they said it was not at all improbable that the people out of revenge at what had happened, might beat, and perhaps even kill their messenger. "That," said one of them, of an opposite opinion, "does not matter much. We had better send this John Granger at once, who I fear is a bad one, and already repents having joined our cause; his loss will not be felt by us, and should they

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kill him, we'll have such pickings out of these fellows' property as shall not leave them much to live upon afterwards. No! let us not hesitate; send John off, without delay; he must take his chance with them, and if he gets killed, why all the better for us." And who," asked the other, "who is to fill up this blank in the petition— who is to be the new minister of Stillby? I'm afraid that those who are at Weavham sent us out of the way that they might arrange this, and in our absence have decided who is to have this snug place." "Well," re

plied his companion, "it cannot be helped; if it be so, we must wait for something else. We shall, at all events, get something out of this job, which I hope is now nearly settled."

After some few further remarks, John was sent for, and received his instructions as to the mode he should adopt in obtaining signatures to the petition. John accordingly started on his errand, fully determined in his own mind that he would take a long farewell of the parliamentary commissioners, and, as soon as possible, consign to the flames the precious document with which he was entrusted. Full of these intentions he went straightway to his old master, George Armstrong, whom he found sitting by the fire-side, with his arm in a sling, in great pain. At the first sight of him the blacksmith was much disposed to try what vigour was left in his unwounded arm, and pay John off, as he termed it, for the trouble he had brought upon him, in common with the other people of Stillby. An explanation, however, took place, and when Armstrong saw that he was really sorry for what he had done, and was willing to make all the compensation in his power, by deserting his late associates and joining the ranks of the Stillby party, he became pacified, and offered, in spite of his wound, to go with John to the King's Head, where many of the people were still collected, and endeavour to make his peace with them. This, at first, was no easy matter; at length, however, it was accomplished, and John was admitted into their councils, which had in view the ejection

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of the military, and bringing back their old rector. The petition which John produced excited much indignation amongst them.

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"Papists and rebels, indeed!" said Giles Saunders; "a nice story,-petition parliament against papists and rebels, when these vagabond soldiers have come among us, driven away our parson, as good a Churchman as ever lived, almost pulled down our church, and shot old George Armstrong and Tommy Stack. I should like to know what they would wish us to do next; perhaps to send up our grateful thanks to parliament that their soldiers have, in their kindness, only shot two of us, and not quite pulled down the church, and to beg them to send us another rector of their making and choosing, who shall teach us that rebellion against our King, and crying down God's Church, is law and gospel. No! no! we are not quite fools enough for this, bad as we are. I tell you what, my friends, we are in a sad business, and it passes my thoughts how we are to get out of it. I do not see what else we can do, but sit down quietly and take the best that comes. We did not value our blessings as we ought to have done when we were possessed of them, and now, in judgment, God has taken them from us. We have nothing to do but to repent of our former negligence, and pray God to bring us better times when He sees fit." This advice was not such as the greater part of those present appeared disposed to follow; but, after much conversation upon the subject, it appeared to be the best; so with a resolution to meet again, if any opportunity of mending their affairs should occur, the meeting was dismissed,-John taking the road to his mother's house, without the petition, which had suffered the fate to which he had doomed it,the others departing to their respective homes.

It is certainly very astonishing in what way matters are carried to the ears of those, who, we should suppose, were least likely to hear them, but so it is; and so it was in the present instance. By what means, or by whose instrumentality, the proceedings at the King's Head, and

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