This so enraged them that they redoubled their violence; no wonder,
then, that I was got down at last, bound hand and foot, and my feet made
bare to receive the bastinado. Before they laid it on, they put the
question to me:

"Wilt thou now, then, recant thine accursed doctrines?"

"What doctrines?" said I, to gain time.

"Those that are falsely called reformed."

"Oh yes, all that are falsely called reformed."

They stood at pause on this, and looked at one another.

"He gives in," muttered one.

"Not a bit," replied another. "He is only lying."

"Well but, mark you, that's no matter of ours," said the first.

"I tell you it is!" roared the second, pushing him aside. "Let me take
him in hand. You don't know how to question him." Then accosting me, in
a defiant sort of way (he was far from sober), he said,

"Hark ye, young man. Now answer for your life. Give us no double
meanings. What is your religion?"

"That which was brought us and taught us by our Lord Jesus Christ."