ccounted, of that
which is called the Church Yard: they forcibly took the body from the
widow (whose right and property it was), and buried it there.

When the Justices had delivered us prisoners to the Constable, it being
then late in the day, which was the seventh day of the week: he (not
willing to go so far as Aylesbury, nine long miles, with us, that night;
nor to put the town [of Amersham] to the charge of keeping us, there,
that night and the First day and night following) dismissed us, upon our
_parole_, to come to him again at a set hour, on the Second day morning.

Whereupon, we all went home to our respective habitations; and coming to
him punctually [_on Monday, 3rd July_, 1665] according to promise, were
by him, without guard, conducted to the Prison.

The Gaoler, whose name was NATHANIEL BIRCH, had, not long before, behaved
himself very wickedly, with great rudeness and cruelty, to some of our
Friends of the lower side of the country [_i.e., Buckinghamshire_]; whom
he, combining with the Clerk of the Peace, whose name was HENRY WELLS,
had contrived to get into his gaol: and after they were legally
discharged in Court, detained them in prison, using great violence, and
shutting them up close in the Common Gaol among the felons; because they
would not give him his unrighteous demand of Fees, which they were the
more straitened in, from his treacherous dealing with them. And they
having, through suffering, maintained their freedom, and obtained their
liberty: we were the more concerned to keep what they had so hardly
gained; and therefore resolved not to make any contract or terms for
either Chamber Rent or Fees, but to demand a Free Prison. Which we did.

When we came in, the gaoler was ridden out to wait on the Judges, who
came in, that day [_3rd July, 1665_], to begin the Assize; and his wife
was somewhat at a loss, how to deal with us. But being a cunning woman,
she treated us with a great appearance of courtesy, offering us the
choice of all her rooms; and when we asked, "Upon what terms?" she still
referred us to her husband; telling us, she "did not doubt, but that he
would be very reasonable and civil to us." Thus, she endeavoured to have
drawn us to take possession of some of her chambers, at a venture; and
trust to her husband's kind usage: but, we, who, at the cost of our
Friends, had a proof of his kindness, were too wary to be drawn in by the
fair words of a woman: and therefore told her, "We w