; "I care not for your fetters!"

The Recorder Jefferies now cried out, "By my troth, I could never before
understand why the Spaniards suffered the Inquisition among them; and,
to my mind, it will never be well with us in England till we have among
us something like the Inquisition."

"Boy," whispered Christison to his son, "you heard those words. The
knave has a good idea of his master's notions and designs. If the
Inquisition,--and I know something of it,--is ever established in this
fair England of ours, it must either be quickly driven out again, or our
country will be no fit place for honest men."

Once more the jury were locked up, without food, fire, or water; but
they were Englishmen to the backbone, and were ready to die in the cause
of civil freedom, rather than play traitors to their own convictions.

On Monday the court again sat. Each juror was separately questioned,
and one and all pronounced "Not guilty." The Recorder on this fined
them forty marks a man, and imprisonment in Newgate till the fines were
paid. Penn and Mead were fined in the same way, the Recorder crying
out, "Put him out of court! Take him away!"

"`Take him away!'" exclaimed Penn. "Whenever I urge the fundamental
laws of England, `Take him away!' is their answer; but no wonder, since
the Spanish Inquisition sits so near the Recorder's heart."

Both prisoners and jurors were carried off to Newgate, refusing to pay
the fines: Penn and Mead as a case of conscience; while Bushel advised
his fellow-jurors to dispute the matter. The jurors were committed to
prison on the 5th of September, and it was not till the 9th of November
that the trial came on. Learned counsel were engaged for their defence;
Newdegate, one of them, arguing that the judges may try to open the eyes
of the jurors, but not to "lead them by the nose." Christison and his
son were present. "I had hoped to spend some years in my native land,
and renew the friendship I formed in my youth," observed the former;
"but I tell thee, Wenlock, if this trial goes against those twelve
honest men, I will forswear my country, and go and seek thy fortune and
mine in some other land, where knaves do not, as here, `rule the
roost.'" When, however, the twelve judges gave an almost unanimous
verdict in favour of the jurymen, Christison agreed that, after all,
there were more honest men in the country than he had feared was the
case.

To return, however, to William Penn and Me