"Ay, I think there be a score or more."
"They will be all sent to prison, I'll wage."
"There can be no doubt about that. Parson Gilloch is most terrible and bitter against these Dissenters; as for Squire Graystone, he fair hates them. Not that I can see they have done aught wrong. They do but pray and preach as they did before the coming of the king. As for their piety—well, if I lay a-dying I'd rather have one of them to pray with me than I'd have the parson, for all his long white gown."
"But still, the king is king, and law is law."
"Ay, I suppose so. Still, although I was no lover of Old Nol, we were better off in his days. There was less thieving, less drinking, less loose living, and more piety. Of that I am free to confess."
"Say not so too loud, for if Parson Gilloch hears of it he will e'en make you smart. Why, think of what hath befallen the Dissenters."
"Ay, a man can hardly call his soul his own, that he cannot. Are you going to the trial to-morrow?"
"Nay, I cannot sleep after I have been to these trials. I cannot help thinking of the women and children. It is terrible hard for them."
"Ay, it is; how they manage to live I know not."
"Think you there is any truth in the stories about Sir John Leslie's daughter?"