the weapon to the
scabbard, muttered between his teeth, 'It is true they say of him, and
the devil will stand his friend till his hour come; I will cross him no
more.'

So saying, he slunk from the crowd, cowed and disheartened by his
defeat.

'For you, Joshua Geddes,' said Redgauntlet, approaching the Quaker, who,
with lifted hands and eyes, had beheld the scene of violence, 'l shall
take the liberty to arrest thee for a breach of the peace, altogether
unbecoming thy pretended principles; and I believe it will go hard with
thee both in a court of justice and among thine own Society of Friends,
as they call themselves, who will be but indifferently pleased to
see the quiet tenor of their hypocrisy insulted by such violent
proceedings.'

'I violent!' said Joshua; 'I do aught unbecoming the principles of the
Friends! I defy thee, man, and I charge thee, as a Christian, to forbear
vexing my soul with such charges: it is grievous enough to me to have
seen violences which I was unable to prevent.'

'O Joshua, Joshua!' said Redgauntlet, with a sardonic smile; 'thou light
of the faithful in the town of Dumfries and the places adjacent, wilt
thou thus fall away from the truth? Hast thou not, before us all,
attempted to rescue a man from the warrant of law? Didst thou not
encourage that drunken fellow to draw his weapon--and didst thou not
thyself flourish thy cudgel in the cause? Think'st thou that the oaths
of the injured Peter Peebles, and the conscientious Cristal Nixon,
besides those of such gentlemen as look on this strange scene, who not
only put on swearing as a garment, but to whom, in Custom House matters,
oaths are literally meat and drink,--dost thou not think, I say, that
these men's oaths will go further than thy Yea and Nay in this matter?'

'I will swear to anything,' said Peter. 'All is fair when it comes to an
oath AD LITEM.'

'You do me foul wrong,' said the Quaker, undismayed by the general
laugh. 'I encouraged no drawing of weapons, though I attempted to move
an unjust man by some use of argument--I brandished no cudgel, although
it may be that the ancient Adam struggled within me, and caused my hand
to grasp mine oaken staff firmer than usual, when I saw innocence borne
down with violence. But why talk I what is true and just to thee, who
hast been a man of violence from thy youth upwards? Let me rather speak
to thee such language as thou canst comprehend. Deliver these young men
up to me,' he said,