n that moment of terror the children wondered not only at the
loud angry voice but at the unfamiliar scent that filled the room. The
air, which had been pure and fragrant with the smell of hay, was now
heavy and loaded with essences and perfumes. Well it might be, for
though the children knew it not, the flowing lovelocks of the curly
wig that descended to the Justice's shoulders had been scented that
very morning with odours of ambergris, musk, and violet, orris root,
orange flowers, and jessamine, as well as others besides. The stronger
scents of kennel and stable, and even of ale and beer, that filled the
room as the constables trooped into it were almost a relief to the
children, because they at least were familiar, and unlike the other
strange, sickly fragrance.

The constables seized the boys, turned them out into the road, and
there punched and beat them with their own staffs and the Justice's
loaded stick until they were black in the face. The girls were driven
in a frightened bunch down the lane. Only Hester sat on in her place,
still and unmoved, sheltering the Twins in her bosom and holding her
hands over their eyes. Up to her came the angry Justice in a fine
rage, until it seemed as if the perfumed wig must almost touch her
smooth plaits of hair. Then, at last, Hester moved, but not in time to
prevent the Justice seizing her by the shoulder and flinging her down
the road after the others. Her frightened charges, torn from her arms,
still clung to her skirts, while the full-grown men strode along after
them, threatening to duck them all in the pond if they made the
slightest resistance, and did not at once disperse to their homes.

It certainly was neither a comfortable thing nor a pleasant thing to
be a Quaker child in those stormy days.

Nevertheless, pleasant or unpleasant, comfortable or uncomfortable,
made no difference. It was thanks to the courage of this handful of
boys and girls that, in spite of the worst that Mr. Justice Armorer
could do, in spite of the dread of him and his constables, in spite of
his angry face, of his scented wig and loaded cane, in spite of all
these things,--still, Sunday after Sunday, through many a long anxious
month, God was worshipped in freedom and simplicity in the town by
silver Thames. Reading Meeting was held.

Meantime, throughout these same long months, within the prison walls
the fathers and mothers prayed for their absent children. Although
apart from one anot