‘ [52] we were forced to leave it; for the constables and rabble fell upon us, and drew some and drove others into the inn. Of those thus taken,’ continues Ellwood,
I was one. They picked out ten of us, and sent us to Aylesbury jail. They caused the body to lie in the open street and cartway, so that all travellers that passed, whether horsemen, coaches, carts, or wagons, were fain to break out of the way to go by it, until it was almost night. And then, having caused a grave to be made in the unconsecrated part of what is called the Churchyard, they forcibly took the body from the widow, and buried it there.He remained a prisoner only about two months, during which period he comforted himself by such verse-making as follows, reminding us of similar enigmas in Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress:—
Lo! a Riddle for the wise,In the mean time, where is our ‘Master Milton’? We left him deprived of his young companion and reader, sitting lonely in his small dining-room, in Jewen Street. It is now the year
In the which a Mystery lies.
Riddle.
Some men are free whilst they in prison lie;
Others who ne'er saw prison captives die.
Caution.
He that can receive it may,
He that cannot, let him stay,
Not be hasty, but suspend
Judgment till he sees the end.
Solution.
He's only free, indeed, who's free from sin,
And he is fastest bound that's bound therein.
