Next day an officer came with his sword and pistols to take me. I told him I knew his errand before, and had given myself to be taken; for if I would have escaped their imprisonment I could have been forty miles off before he came; but I was an innocent man, and so it mattered not what they could do to me. He asked me how I heard of it, seeing the order was made privately in a parlour. I said it was no matter for that; it was sufficient that I heard it.
I asked him to let me see his order, whereupon he laid his hand on his sword, and said I must go with him before the lieutenant to answer such questions as they should propound to me. I told him it was but civil and reasonable for him to let me see his order; but he would not. Then said I, "I am ready."
So I went along with him, and Margaret Fell accompanied us to Houlker Hall. When we came thither there was one Rawlinson, a justice, and one called Sir George Middleton, and many more that I did not know, besides old Justice Preston, who lived there.
They brought Thomas Atkinson, a Friend, of Cartmel, as a witness against me for some words which he had told to one Knipe, who had informed them, which words were that I said I had written against the plotters and had knocked them down. These words they could not make much of, for I told them I had heard of a plot, and had written against it.
Old Preston asked me whether I had an hand in that script. I asked him what he meant. He said, "in the Battledore?" I answered, "Yes."
Then he asked me whether I understood languages. I said, "Sufficient for myself," and that I knew no law that was transgressed by it. I told them also that to understand outward languages was no matter of salvation, for the many tongues began but at the confusion of Babel; and if I did understand anything of them, I judged and knocked them down again for any matter of salvation that was in them.
Thereupon he turned away, and said, "George Fox knocks down all the languages; come," said he, "we will examine you of higher matters."
Then said George Middleton, "You deny God, and the Church, and the faith."
I replied, "Nay, I own God and the true Church, and the true faith. But what Church dost thou own?" said I (for I understood he was a Papist).
Then he turned again and said, "You are a rebel and a traitor."