roached
the spot, intending, it seemed, to pass by. The one was a man whose
grizzly beard and furrowed features showed that he had seen rough
service in his time, his dress and general appearance bespeaking the
soldier. His companion was a youth of sixteen or seventeen years of
age, so like him in countenance that their relationship was evident.
From the inquiries they made, they were apparently strangers.

"Canst tell me, friend, what has brought all these people together?"
said the elder man to a by-stander.

"Most of these people are `Friends,' as they call themselves," answered
the man addressed, a well-to-do artisan, "or `Quakers,' as the world
calls them, because they bid sinners exceedingly to quake and tremble at
the word of the Lord. To my mind they are harmless as to their deeds,
though in word they are truly powerful at times. The bishops and church
people do not like them because they declare that God can be worshipped
in the open air, or in a man's own home, as well as in the grandest
cathedral, or `steeple house,' as they call the church. The
Independents are opposed to them, because they deem ministers
unnecessary, and trust to the sword of the Spirit rather than to carnal
weapons; while the wealthy and noble disdain them, because they refuse
to uncover their heads, or to pay undue respect to their fellow-men,
however rich or exalted in rank they may be. They have come to hold a
meeting in yonder house, where the soldiers are stationed; but as
speaking will not open the doors, they will have to go away again
disappointed."

"If they are the harmless people you describe, that seems a hard case,"
observed the stranger. "By what right are they prohibited from thus
meeting?"

"I know not if it is by right, but it is by law," answered the artisan.
"You have doubtless heard of the `Conventicle Act,' prohibiting all
religious worship, except according to the established ritual. The
`Friends' alone hold it in no respect, and persist in meeting where they
have the mind!"

"What! do all the other dissenters of England submit to such a law?"
exclaimed the stranger.

"Marry do they," answered the artisan. "They pocket the affront, and
conform in public to what is demanded, satisfying their consciences by
worshipping together in private. Do you not know that every head of a
family is fined a shilling on every Sunday that he neglects to attend
the parish church? You can have been but a short time in