Babylon here; but methinks you yourself have had a fall too, since the
days you speak of: when you left Jersey for London you came here in a
sort of triumph. But by this time, methinks, you must be cured of your
high hopes: I say it not for offence, but rather out of sorrow."

"Why no," answered the ex-Member. "Though I be no longer one of yonder
assembly, I am still a denizen of London; and, let me tell you, a
citizen of no mean city. And I bear my share in advancing the great
cause on which so many of us are now engaged. Have you not read what Mr.
Milton hath said here as touching this?" And he took up the book which
he had dropped in the window-seat "It is well said, as you will find."

Motioning Lempriere to a chair, he took another and read as follows:--

"'Behold now this vast city, a city of refuge, the mansion-house of
liberty, encompassed and surrounded with its protection ... pens and
hands there, sitting by their studious lamps, musing, searching,
revolving new notions and ideas, wherewith to present, as with their
homage and their fealty, the approaching reformation.' As he saith a
little further on, the fields of our harvest are white already; and it
is your privilege and mine that live among this wise and active people,
to see it coming, perhaps to put in a sickle. The pamphlet is becoming a
force stronger than the sword; and those Ironsides and Woodenheads who
turn us out of the Chamber where our fellow citizens had seated us, may
find an ill time before them when our work is over. But our work will be
the work of freedom."

What more would have been said, now that Prynne was setting forth on
his dearly-loved hobby, of which the name was _Cedant arma_, is unknown;
for the serving-man entered at this moment with a simple but plentiful