I can sit in my own garden and hear the Genevan thunders from
within. He preaches so loud that I might, if I wished, hear sermons, and
thus satisfy the law and his Reverence; and at the same time not go
inside an heretical meeting-house, and thus satisfy my own conscience and
His Holiness. But I fear that would not have saved me, had I not the ear
of his Reverence. I will tell you how it was. When the laws began to be
enforced hereabouts, his Reverence came to see me; and sat in that very
chair that you now occupy.
"'I hear,' said he, cocking his eye at me, 'that her Grace is becoming
strict, and more careful for the souls of her subjects.'
"I agreed with him, and said I had heard as much.
"'The fine is twenty pounds a month,' says he, 'for recusancy,' and then
he looks at me again."
"At first I did not catch his meaning; for, as you have noticed, Mr.
Norris, I am but a dull man in dealing with these sharp and subtle
Protestants: and then all at once it flashed across me.
"'Yes, your Reverence,' I said, 'and it will be the end of poor gentlemen
like me, unless some kind friend has pity on them. How happy I am in
having you!' I said, 'I have never yet shown my appreciation as I should:
and I propose now to give you, to be applied to what purposes you will,
whether the sustenance of the minister or anything else, the sum of ten
pounds a month; so long as I am not troubled by the Council. Of course,
if I should be fined by the Council, I shall have to drop my appreciation
for six months or so.
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