The Ruffler sighed; the listeners sighed in sympathy; a general depression fell upon the company for a moment, for even hardened outcasts like these are not wholly dead to sentiment, but are able to feel a fleeting sense of loss and affliction at wide intervals and under peculiarly favouring circumstances—­as in cases like to this, for instance, when genius and culture depart and leave no heir.  However, a deep drink all round soon restored the spirits of the mourners.

“Have any others of our friends fared hardly?” asked Hobbs.

“Some—­yes.  Particularly new comers—­such as small husbandmen turned shiftless and hungry upon the world because their farms were taken from them to be changed to sheep ranges.  They begged, and were whipped at the cart’s tail, naked from the girdle up, till the blood ran; then set in the stocks to be pelted; they begged again, were whipped again, and deprived of an ear; they begged a third time—­poor devils, what else could they do?—­and were branded on the cheek with a red-hot iron, then sold for slaves; they ran away, were hunted down, and hanged.  ’Tis a brief tale, and quickly told.  Others of us have fared less hardly.  Stand forth, Yokel, Burns, and Hodge—­show your adornments!”

These stood up and stripped away some of their rags, exposing their backs, criss-crossed with ropy old welts left by the lash; one turned up his hair and showed the place where a left ear had once been; another showed a brand upon his shoulder—­the letter V—­and a mutilated ear; the third said—­

“I am Yokel, once a farmer and prosperous, with loving wife and kids—­now am I somewhat different in estate and calling; and the wife and kids are gone; mayhap they are in heaven, mayhap in—­in the other place—­but the kindly God be thanked, they bide no more in England!  My good old blameless mother strove to earn bread by nursing the sick; one of these died, the doctors knew not how, so my mother was burnt for a witch, whilst my babes looked on and wailed.  English law!—­up, all, with your cups!—­now all together and with a cheer!—­drink to the merciful English law that delivered her from the English hell!  Thank you, mates, one and all.  I begged, from house to house—­I and the wife—­bearing with us the hungry kids—­but it was crime to be hungry in England—­so they stripped us and lashed us through three towns.  Drink ye all again to the merciful English law!—­for its lash drank deep of my Mary’s blood and its blessed deliverance came quick.  She lies there, in the potter’s field, safe from all harms.  And the kids—­well, whilst the law lashed me from town to town, they starved.  Drink, lads—­only a drop—­a drop to the poor kids, that never did any creature harm.  I begged again—­begged, for a crust, and got the stocks and lost an ear—­see, here bides the stump; I begged again, and here is the stump of the other to keep me minded of it.  And still I begged again, and was sold for a slave—­here on my cheek under this stain, if I washed it off, ye might see the red S the branding-iron left there!  A slave!  Do you understand that word?  An English slave! —­that is he that stands before ye.  I have run from my master, and when I am found—­the heavy curse of heaven fall on the law of the land that hath commanded it!—­I shall hang!” {1}