The writings of John Greenleaf Whittier, Volume 6.
John Greenleaf Whittier, Ed.

‘An't please you, my Lord,’ said the scandalized priest, ‘he says I'm drunk.’

The Bishop asked Roberts to repeat his words; and, instead of reprimanding him, as the priest expected, was so much amused that he held up his hands and laughed; whereupon the offended infervor took a hasty leave. The Bishop, who was evidently glad to be rid of him, now turned to Roberts, and complained that he had dealt hardly with him, in telling him, before so many gentlemen, that he had sought to betray him by professions of friendship, in order to send him to prison; and that, if he had not done as he did, people would have reported him as an encourager of the Quakers. ‘But now, John,’ said the good prelate, ‘I'll burn the warrant against you before your face.’ ‘You know, Mr. Burnet,’ he continued, addressing his attendant, ‘that a Ring of Bells may be made of excellent metal, but they may be out of tune; so we may say of John: he is a man of as good metal as I ever met with, but quite out of tune.’

‘Thou mayst well say so,’ quoth Roberts, ‘for I can't tune after thy pipe.’

The inferior clergy were by no means so lenient as the Bishop. They regarded Roberts as the ringleader of Dissent, an impracticable, obstinate, contumacious heretic, not only refusing to pay them tithes himself, but encouraging others to the same course. Hence, they thought it necessary to visit upon him the full rigor of the law. His crops were taken from his field, and his cattle from his yard. He was often committed to the jail,