I replied that we should SEE PRESENTLY.
Breakfast then making its appearance, we sat down, and while we were eating, (our men all on parade at the door) Johnson's men kept dropping in one after another, till there were, I dare say, as many as thirty of them in the room, ALL ARMED.
When breakfast was over, I turned to the constable, and desired him to look to his charge, meaning the three vagrants, for that we would start as soon as our men were all refreshed. Upon this captain Johnson said he believed he should not let the prisoners go.
"Not let them go, sir," said I, "what do you mean by that, sir?"
"I mean, sir," replied he, "that the law is an oppressive one."
I asked him, still keeping myself perfectly cool, if he was not an American soldier?
"Yes, sir," he answered, "I am an American soldier; and as good a one, perhaps, as yourself, or any other man."
"Well, sir, and is this the way you show your soldiership, by insulting the law?"
"I am not bound," continued he, "to obey a bad law."
"But, sir, who gave YOU a right to JUDGE the law?"