“Nay, nay, nay! poor youth! do not tell me so! they are not such very bad men, since thou appealest unto Cæsar,—that is, unto the judgment-seat.”
Now his worship did mean the two witnesses, Joseph and Euseby; and, sooth to say there be many worse. But William had them not in his eye; his thoughts were elsewhere, as will be evident, for he went on thus:—
“—if ever I forget or desert thee, or ever cease to worship [193a] and cherish thee, my Hannah!”
Sir Silas.
“The madman! the audacious, desperate, outrageous villain! Look-ye, sir! where he flung the Holy Gospel! Behold it on the holly and box boughs in the chimney-place, spreaden all abroad, like a lad about to be whipped!”
Sir Thomas.
“Miscreant knave! I will send after him forthwith!
“Ho, there! is the caitiff at hand, or running off?”
Jonas Greenfield the butler did budge forward after a while, and say, on being questioned,—
“Surely, that was he! Was his nag tied to the iron gate at the lodge, Master Silas?”