Suddenly checking himself, and fixing his earnest gaze upon the young man, the Puritan said-- "Give ear to me, my son.

If I desired to inflame your breast with rage against this tyrant, I should need only to relate one instance of his cruelty and injustice.

I had a friend--a very dear friend," he continued, in a tone of deep pathos--"confined within the Fleet Prison by a decree of the Star-Chamber.

He was to me as a brother, and to see him gradually pining away cut me to the soul.

Proud by nature, he refused to abase himself to his oppressor, and could not be brought to acknowledge wrongs he had never committed.