repast carried on his head from the adjacent tavern; and even Prynne's
eagerness was dashed with caution enough to keep him to ordinary topics
of talk so long as the man was in the room. But Lempriere had seen and
heard enough to put him in good humour with his host. The intimacy of
the latter with the Carterets, and a suspicion of general lukewarmness
in the popular cause, had begotten old enmities, of which Lempriere, in
the long probation of failure, exile, and poverty, had already learned
to be ashamed; and to see the man he had misjudged, looking him eagerly
and earnestly in the face as he uttered the language of a genuine
reformer, completed the Jerseyman's conversion. After the servant had
brought pipes and glasses and left the gentlemen to their tobacco and
their wine, their talk grew more familiar as they looked at the flowing
river, and the deserted towers of Lambeth away on the other side.

"The truth is," said Prynne, "that I received from the cavaliers of your
island kindnesses that I cannot forget; yet as touching the trial and
execution of the late King, if I have gainsayed aught of the other side,
yet I need not repeat that I have ever been a friend to Liberty, as
witness these indentures," and with a starched smile he pointed to the
marks upon his face. "I know that you have reason to be angry with Sir
George Cartwright...."

"Let us not talk of him," answered the other, with a flush on his
swarthy cheek. "I lose all patience when I think of the many mischiefs
entailed upon my country by the cruelty and greed of that house. When
his late uncle, your protector, made Sir George a substitute in the
Government of the island, he was but 23 years old: but old enough to be
a serpent more subtle than any that went before; and see what he hath
made of our little Eden! He and his men the servants, not of the people,
but of Jermyn; prelacy and malignancy spread abroad. In the twelve