ace of the right cheek
sprawled a great red R, branded into the flesh, and through each large
protruding ear went a ragged hole. For the rest, the lips were of iron,
and the small, deep-set eyes were so bright and burning that they gave
the impression that they were red like the great letter. It might have
been the face of a man of sixty years, though it would have been hard to
tell wherein lay the semblance of age, so smooth was the skin and so
brilliant the eyes.

"The Indian needed help. Why should I not have given it him?" said
Landless.

"Because it is written, 'Cursed are the heathen who inhabit the land.'"

Landless smiled. "So you would not help an Indian in extremity. What if
it had been a negro?"

"Cursed are the negroes! 'Ye Ethiopians also, ye shall be slain by the
sword.'"

"A Quaker?"

"Cursed are the Quakers! 'Silly doves that have no heart.'"

Landless laughed. "You have cursed pretty well all the oppressed of the
land. I suppose you reserve your blessings for the powers that be."

"The powers that be! May the plagues of Egypt light upon them, and the
seven vials rain down their contents upon them! Cursed be they all, from
the young man, Charles Stuart, to that prelatical, tyrannical, noxious
Malignant, William Berkeley! May their names become a hissing and an
abomination! Roaring lions are their princes, ravening wolves are their
judges, their priests have polluted the sanctuary! May their flesh
consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes consume
away in their holes, and their tongues consume away in their mouths, and
may there be mourning among them, even as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in
the valley of Megiddon!"

"You are a Muggletonian?"

"Yea, verily am I! a follower of the saintly Ludovick Muggleton, and of
the saintlier John Reeve, of whom Ludovick is but the mouthpiece, even
as Aaron was of Moses. They are the two witnesses of the Apocalypse.
They are the two olive trees and the two candlesticks. To them and to
their followers it is given to curse and to spare not, to prophesy
against the peoples and kindred and nations and tongues whereon is set
the seal of the beast. Wherefore I, Win-Grace Porringer, testify against
the people of this land; against Prelatists and Papists, Presbyterians
and Independents, Baptists, Quakers and heathen; against princes,
governors, and men in high places; against them that call themselves
planters and trample the vineyard of the Lord;