JOHN ENDICOTT. 
Thank God!  This is a victory for truth! 
Our thoughts are free.  They cannot be shut up
In prison wall, nor put to death on scaffolds!

UPSALL. 
Come in; the morning air blows sharp and cold
Through the damp streets.

JOHN ENDICOTT. 
                It is the dawn of day
That chases the old darkness from our sky,
And tills the land with liberty and light.
                                 [Exeunt.

SCENE II. —­ The parlor of the Three Mariners.  Enter KEMPTHORN.

KEMPTHORN. 
A dull life this,—­a dull life anyway! 
Ready for sea; the cargo all aboard,
Cleared for Barbadoes, and a fair wind blowing
From nor’-nor’-west; and I, an idle lubber,
Laid neck and heels by that confounded bond! 
I said to Ralph, says I, “What’s to be done?”
Says he:  “Just slip your hawser in the night;
Sheer off, and pay it with the topsail, Simon.” 
But that won’t do; because, you see, the owners
Somehow or other are mixed up with it. 
Here are King Charles’s Twelve Good Rules, that Cole
Thinks as important as the Rule of Three.

Reads.

“Make no comparisons; make no long meals.” 
Those are good rules and golden for a landlord
To hang in his best parlor, framed and glazed! 
“Maintain no ill opinions; urge no healths.” 
I drink to the King’s, whatever he may say
And, as to ill opinions, that depends. 
Now of Ralph Goldsmith I’ve a good opinion,
And of the bilboes I’ve an ill opinion;
And both of these opinions I’ll maintain
As long as there’s a shot left in the locker.

Enter EDWARD BUTTER, with an ear-trumpet.

BUTTER. 
Good morning, Captain Kempthorn.

KEMPTHORN. 
                        Sir, to you. 
You’ve the advantage of me.  I don’t know you. 
What may I call your name?

BUTTER. 
              That’s not your name?

KEMPTHORN. 
Yes, that’s my name.  What’s yours?

BUTTER. 
                 My name is Butter. 
I am the treasurer of the Commonwealth.

KEMPTHORN. 
Will you be seated?

BUTTER. 
      What say?  Who’s conceited?

KEMPTHORN.

Will you sit down?

BUTTER. 
              Oh, thank you.

KEMPTHORN. 
                      Spread yourself
Upon this chair, sweet Butter.

BUTTER (sitting down). 
                       A fine morning.

KEMPTHORN. 
Nothing’s the matter with it that I know of. 
I have seen better, and I have seen worse. 
The wind’s nor’west.  That’s fair for them that sail.

BUTTER. 
You need not speak so loud; I understand you. 
You sail to-day.

KEMPTHORN. 
                 No, I don’t sail to-day. 
So, be it fair or foul, it matters not. 
Say, will you smoke?  There’s choice tobacco here.