“Come,” he cried, in the concluding lines—­

   “Tell ’em the M——­ that placed him here
   Are Sc——­ls to the times,
   Are at a loss to find his guilt,
   And can’t commit his crimes.”

“M——­” stands for Men, and “Sc——­ ls” for Scandals.  Defoe delighted in this odd use of methods of reserve, more common in his time than in ours.

The dauntless courage of Defoe’s Hymn to the Pillory can only be properly appreciated when we remember with what savage outrage it was the custom of the mob to treat those who were thus exposed to make a London holiday.  From the pillory he was taken back to Newgate, there to be imprisoned during her Majesty’s pleasure.  His confinement must have been much less disagreeable to him than it would have been to one of less hardy temperament.  Defoe was not the man to shrink with loathing from the companionship of thieves, highwaymen, forgers, coiners, and pirates.  Curiosity was a much stronger power with him than disgust.  Newgate had something of the charm for Defoe that a hospital full of hideous diseases has for an enthusiastic surgeon.  He spent many pleasant hours in listening to the tales of his adventurous fellow-prisoners.  Besides, the Government did not dare to deprive him of the liberty of writing and publishing.  This privilege enabled him to appeal to the public, whose ear he had gained in the character of an undismayed martyr, an enjoyment which to so buoyant a man must have compensated for a great deal of irksome suffering, he attributed the failure of his pantile works at Tilbury to his removal from the management of them; but bearing in mind the amount of success that had attended his efforts when he was free, it is fair to suppose that he was not altogether sorry for the excuse.  It was by no means the intention of his High-Church persecutors that Defoe should enjoy himself in Newgate, and he himself lamented loudly the strange reverse by which he had passed within a few months from the closet of a king to a prisoner’s cell; but on the whole he was probably as happy in Newgate as he had been at Whitehall.  His wife and six children were most to be commiserated, and their distress was his heaviest trial.

The first use which Defoe made of his pen after his exhibition in the pillory was to reply to a Dissenting minister who had justified the practice of occasional conformity.  He thereby marked once more his separation from the extreme Dissenters, who were struggling against having their religion made a disqualification for offices of public trust.  But in the changes of parties at Court he soon found a reason for marking his separation from the opposite extreme, and facing the other way.  Under the influence of the moderate Tories, Marlborough, Godolphin, and their invaluable ally, the Duchess, the Queen was gradually losing faith in the violent Tories.  According to Swift, she began to dislike her bosom friend, Mrs. Freeman, from the moment of