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CHAPTER VI.

But then I sigh, and with a piece of Scripture,
Tell them-that we are bid do good for evil;
And thus I clothe my naked villainy

With old odd ends, stolen forth of Holy Writ;
And seem a saint, when most I play the devil.
SHAKSPERE.

MR. PETERS had been in confinement at Weavham some few days, when he was aroused early one morning by the entrance of Corporal Holdfast, who told him to rise and dress quickly, and prepare himself for a journey which he was to make with that worthy personage. The preparations were soon made, and, after a hasty breakfast, the party on their march. The road they took was towards London, where Mr. Peters, with some other prisoners whom they were to pick up on their way, was eventually to be confined. The party consisted of Holdfast, the corporal; Longfass, whom they considered their chaplain; twelve privates, or common soldiers; and Mr. Peters, and three other prisoners, who, like him, had been convicted of malignancy and rebellion against the Parliament. It was one of those beautiful mornings which occasionally visit us in November, the ground was white with a hoar frost, and the bits of ice crackled under the horses' feet, breaking the hollow full sound which they made upon the hard road as they marched along. The sun had not yet risen, but his approach was plainly visible in the east, which was momentarily assuming a brighter and more glowing hue at his approach. Here and there a robin redbreast, our kind companion through the dreary months of winter, was singing his matin song, and offered a strong contrast with his joyous note, and freedom from restraint, to the

silence and cast-down appearance of the party before us. As soon as they had emerged from the town, it was evident to Mr. Peters that the soldiers were apprehensive that either some attempt would be made by the prisoners to escape, or that some attack from the enemy was expected. Two of the soldiers were ordered to the front, with directions to keep a-head of the main body some hundred yards; eight of them, forming the chief party in the centre, were appointed to guard the prisoners; and two, at the distance of another hundred yards, brought up the rear. Holdfast and the chaplain moved from one party to another, but generally took up their position. during the march with the main body, and occasionally engaged Mr. Peters and the other prisoners in conversation. The characters of these two men were as different from each other as can well be conceived; the only point of attraction between them, being that of utter hostility to the Church and King, and a firm resolution to destroy both of them, root and branch.

Holdfast, as I have said, was the son of a depraved man, who, from the very worst motives, had given up his attachment to the constituted authorities of the country, and joined himself to the present party, who were endeavouring to overthrow everything that was venerable and good. The son followed in the same steps, and, although for the sake of appearance and interest, he felt obliged to keep up some outward semblance of religion, was at the heart an arrant sensualist. He was frequently quoting texts of Sacred Scripture, not only among the strictest of that party to which he had attached himself, but at all times and with all kinds of men, totally irrespective of the circumstances under which at the time he might be placed. It was, therefore, no uncommon thing for him to be uttering language the most sacred, when he was in a state of intoxication; and he would frequently, as he thought, justify to others the most iniquitous acts, by bringing passages of the Bible in their support, and so perverting that Holy Word as to make it the minister of his sin.

A most glaring instance of this wicked perversion of Sacred Scripture had occurred not long before the time when he was first introduced to our readers' notice. He had long been attempting to gain the affections of a poor country girl, who was sufficiently aware of his character to refuse, at first, his attentions. Nothing daunted, however, by her coldness, he had persevered in his suit, and not being able to accomplish his desires by inducing her to marry him, which in the first instance he had proposed, perhaps with little intentions of sincerity, he changed his mode of attack, and, by his wicked and abominable distortions of the Gospel truths, had, I cannot say persuaded her, but, at all events, had raised doubts in her mind, as to Christians being under any law at all. He said that to the pure all things were pure, and that it mattered little what a Christian did, provided his spirit within was right, that he was above all the commands which were only binding upon the ungodly, and that he was fully entitled to follow the bent of his own desire, provided he kept his heart fixed upon higher things, with which the outward act had nothing to do. The poor girl had been badly brought up, and had but very unsettled principles, and so unhappily fell into a worse snare than the one she had escaped, for Holdfast effected his abominable purpose without engaging her in those bonds which he told her were among the carnal observances from which Christians were free, and only conventional forms among mankind.

The hypocrisy of this man was well known to the parliamentary party, but so far from being a hindrance to his rise among them, proved, in fact, one great cause of it, for in most of their acts they required such agents as Holdfast, and were therefore very ready to engage his services, and placed him in a situation where his pretended religion and unscrupulous rascality enabled them to carry out their iniquitous designs; at the same time they took care that he should not be intrusted with so much power as would enable him to turn his talents against them. As an additional precaution on this head,

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Nicholas Longfass was generally joined with him in his different expeditions, as happened in the present instance. Nicholas's character was very different, as we have stated, from that of his companion. He was in all respects a rigid puritan; in his earlier years he had spent much of his time at Geneva, and had there imbibed, among other errors, that hatred to episcopacy which, even in the present day, is so commonly seen among the disciples of Calvin. He had come to England at a time when the heads of the Church were endeavouring to put down, by law, those erroneous views which among a certain class of persons were daily gaining ground, and who had in some instances visited offences against Church government, with the secular arm, in such a manner as to bear an appearance of persecution. It is not within the course of our narrative to enter into the subject of the star chamber, and the punishment inflicted through its authority; in some instances it appears hard to reconcile its acts with that spirit of love which is the characteristic feature of the Church; on the other hand it is perhaps wrong to pass censure upon those who directed its

powers, when we consider the times in which they lived, and the circumstances under which they acted. Be this as it may, it happened unfortunately for our acquaintance Longfass, that he came within its cognizance, for preaching a sermon full of blasphemy, and in various discourses stirring up the people to rebellion. For these offences he was sentenced to the pillory, which punishment, so far from curing his faults, only exasperated him the more, and confirmed him more resolutely in his opinions. Henceforward he gave himself up entirely to the cause of the Parliament, fully determined to root out those powers which had inflicted upon him so signal a disgrace. With this object in view he travelled about the country from place to place, endeavouring to instil into the minds of the common people a hatred to kingly government, and episcopacy, which he asserted to be antichristian, and contrary to the letter and spirit of the Gospel. The acts of the king he denounced as those of

a tyrant and an oppressor, and perverting texts of Sacred Scripture to a different purpose from his companion Holdfast, had pursuaded his hearers that they were bound by the very commands of God to reject the king from among them, and set up a form of government in accordance with those views which he advocated. His attacks against the bishops were not less violent; he denounced them as wolves in sheep's clothing who would not spare the flock; as traitors to their GOD, limbs of antichrist, who ought to be removed from the face of the earth.

During the trial of Archbishop Laud, he had exerted himself as much as possible against that prelate, stirring up the people to demand his blood; and evinced no measured satisfaction when that event was brought about by his cruel murder. So determined was his hostility against Church and King, that he considered all measures justifiable which might accomplish it, and thought that no punishment could be too great for those who were such enemies against what he conceived the free and spiritual light of the Gospel. In his bitterness against them, he branded them with names utterly distinct from the tenets they held, and the doctrines they taught, denouncing them as papists and rebels; nothing in his opinion was too bad for them; one sole absorbing idea appeared to have possessed his mind, which was that they were enemies to all that was good; -one sole absorbing desire appeared to be his constant aim, which was that they might be torn up root and branch from the earth. To this hostility of heart, and inflexibility of purpose, were added talents well suited to further his object. He was a man of ascetic and self-denying habits, which gained the approbation of the fanatics among his party; his talents for speaking were very great, so that his eloquence and oratory captivated the mass; and his knowledge of Scriptural language was so great, his memory being stored with texts which on all occasions he was in the habit of quoting, that he was regarded with admiration by all those who looked upon such a faculty as an unerring evidence of the presence of the Spirit. Such was Nicholas Longfass.

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