, and wholly disappointed, the soldier, in spite of
himself, obeyed. But he insisted on accompanying Fox to the outskirts
of the town. 'You will be safe now, Sir,' he said, and sweeping his
plumed hat respectfully on the ground, as he bowed low to his new
friend, the two parted.

Nevertheless, not many days thereafter this very gallant gentleman
paid for his chivalrous conduct. No less than seven men fell upon him
at once, and beat him cruelly 'for daring to take the Quaker's part.'
'For it was the custom of this country to run twenty or forty people
upon one man,' adds the Journal, with quiet scorn. 'And they fell so
upon Friends in many places, that they could hardly pass the high
ways, stoning and beating and breaking their heads.'

But of the punishment in store for his defender, Fox was happily
ignorant that hot afternoon of the riot, as he followed the peaceful
brook through its sheltered glen, and so came up again at last, after
his rough handling, to friendly Swarthmoor, where young George Fell,
escaped from his persecutors and the miry ditch, had arrived before
him. 'And there they were, dressing the heads and hands of Friends and
friendly people that were broken that day by the professors and
hearers of Priest Lampitt,' writes Fox.

'And my body and arms were yellow, black and blue with the blows and
bruises I received among them that day.'

FOOTNOTES:

[12] Remember always that by 'priest' George Fox only means a man of
any form of religion who was paid for preaching. Lampitt was probably
an Independent. 'Professors,' as we have already seen, are the people
usually called 'Puritans, who 'professed' or made a great show of
being very religious.'

XIII. MAGNANIMITY

_'Magnanimity ... includes all
that belongs to a great soul. A
high and mighty Courage, an
invincible Patience, an immovable
Grandeur; which is above the reach
of Injuries; a high and lofty
Spirit allayed with the sweetness
of Courtesy and Respect: a deep
and stable Resolution founded on
Humilitie without any Baseness ...
a generous confidence, and a great
inclination to Heroical deeds; all
these conspire to compleat it,
with a severe and mighty
expectation of Bliss
incomprehensible....