ed at the stack, to which they marched with a flag,
the flag bearer laid his flag on the ground, and knelt down to pray.
The others then put in, it is said, a lighted match; but Thom seized
it and forbade it to burn, and the fire was not kindled. This, on
their return to the company, was announced as a miracle worked by the
Saviour. There is another of his acts, which he mentioned as one of
the proofs of his Divinity, that I confess myself at a loss to
understand. After he had fired one shot at the constable, Mears, and
subsequently chopped at him with his dirk, he went into the house,
seized a loaded pistol, and on coming out, said: 'Now, am I not your
Saviour?' The words were scarcely out of his mouth, when he pulled
the trigger of his pistol, and shot Mears a second time."

He administered a parody on the blessed Sacrament, in bread and water to
his followers, before the encounter and harangued them. He told them on
this occasion, as he did on many others, that there was great opposition
in the land, and, indeed, throughout the world, but, that if they would
follow him, he would lead them on to glory. He told them he had come to
earth on a cloud, and that, on a cloud, he should some day be removed
from them; that neither bullets nor weapons could injure him, or them, if
they had but faith in him as their Saviour: and that if 10,000 soldiers
came against them, they would either turn to their side, or fall dead at
his command. At the end of his harangue, Alexander Foad, a respectable
farmer, and one of his followers, knelt down at his feet and worshipped
him; and so did another man named Brankford. Foad then asked Thom
whether he should follow him in the body, or go home and follow him in
heart. To this Thom replied: "Follow me in the body." Foad then sprang
on his feet in an ecstasy of joy, and, with a voice of great animation,
exclaimed: "Oh, be joyful! Oh, be joyful! The Saviour has accepted me.
Go on--go on, till I drop, I'll follow thee!" Brankford was also
accepted as a follower, and exhibited the same enthusiastic fervour,
while Thom uttered terrific denunciations of eternal torture in hell fire
against all who should refuse to follow him.

With the death of Thom and his deluded followers, the excitement calmed
down, and entirely subsided after the trial of nine prisoners, which took
place at Maidstone, on the 9th of August, before Lord Denman. They were