there
is a poor Quaker in irons yet, that was laid in two weeks since, and
the other prisoners will kill him for us.'

'We will have a Court Martial,' thought Sir Edward, 'and settle this
Quaker's job once for all.'

He told the lieutenant to go for the keys and let Richard out, and to
put a flag at the mizen-mast's head, and call a council of war, and
make all the captains come from all the other ships to try the Quaker.

It was not yet eight o'clock on a Sunday morning. At the signal, all
the captains of all the other ships came hurrying on board the _Royal
Prince_, the Admiral's flag-ship. Richard was fetched up from his
prison and brought before this council of war--or Court Martial as it
would be called now. The Admiral sat in the middle, very grand indeed;
beside him sat the judge of the Court Martial, 'who,' says Richard,
'was a papist, being Governor of Dover Castle, who went to sea on
pleasure.' He probably looked grander still. Around these two sat the
other naval captains from the other ships. Opposite all these great
people was Quaker Richard, so weakened by fever and lame from his
heavy fetters that he could not stand, and had to be allowed to sit.
The Commander, to give Richard one more chance, asked him if he would
go aboard another ship, a tender with six guns. Richard's conscience
was still clear that he could have nothing to do with guns or
fighting. He said he would rather stay where he was and abide his
punishment.

What punishment do you think the judge thought would be suitable for a
man who had committed only the crime of refusing to fight, or to work
to help those who were fighting?

'The judge said I should be put into a barrel or cask _driven full of
nails with their points inward and so rolled to death_; but the
council of war taking it into consideration, thought it too terrible a
death and too much unchristianlike; so they agreed to hang me.'

'Too much unchristianlike' indeed! The mere thought of such a
punishment makes us shiver. The Governor of Dover Castle, who
suggested it, was himself a Roman Catholic. History tells how fiercely
the Roman Catholics persecuted the Protestants in Queen Mary's reign,
when Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer, Hooper, and many others were burnt at
the stake for their religion. Since then times had changed, and when
the Protestants were in power they too had often persecuted the Roman
Catholics in their turn. Perhaps someone whom this 'papist' judge had
loved v