'Informer, art thou in the tree?
Take heed, lest there thou hanged be:
Look likewise to thy foot-hold well;
Lest, if thou slip, thou fall to hell.'


In many cases the justices considered a field preacher to be
equally guilty with a regicide.[210] One of the informers, named W.
S., was very diligent in this business; 'he would watch a-nights,
climb trees, and range the woods a-days, if possible to find out
the meeters, for then they were forced to meet in the fields.' At
length he was stricken by the hand of God, and died a most wretched
object.[211] The cruelties that were inflicted upon Dissenters
are scarcely credible. Penn, the Quaker, gives this narrative of
facts:--The widow's mite hath not escaped their hands; they have
made her cow the forfeit of her conscience, not leaving her a bed
to lie on, nor a blanket to cover her; and what is yet more barbarous,
and helps to make up this tragedy, the poor helpless orphan's milk,
boiling over the fire, was flung away, and the skillet made part
of their prize; that, had not nature in neighbours been stronger
than cruelty in informers and officers, to open her bowels for
their relief, they must have utterly perished.[212] One of these
infamous, hard-hearted wretches in Bedford, was stricken, soon
after, with death; and such had been his notorious brutality, that
his widow could not obtain a hearse, but was obliged to carry his
body to the grave in a cart.

It is gratifying to leave these horrors--these stains upon
our national history--for a moment, to record an event which took