Gossip and laughter and the click of the drinking-horn fell everywhere on the ear.

But the night was still young, and order as yet prevailed.
The Market Place was the scene of highest activity.

Numbers of men and boys sat and stood on the steps of the Cross, discussing the proclamation that had been read there.

Now and again some youth of more scholarship than the rest held a link to the paper, and lisped and stammered through its bewildering sentences for the benefit of a circle of listeners who craned their necks to hear.
The proclamation was against public vice and immorality of various sorts which were unpunishable by law.

It set forth that there were many persons who had no method of expressing their allegiance to their Sovereign but that of drinking his health, and others who had so little regard for morality and religion as to have no respect for the virtue of the female sex.
The loyaly of the Lancasterians might be unimpeachable, but their amusement at the proclamation was equally beyond question.
"That from Charles Stuart!" said one, with a laugh; and he added, with more familiarity of affection for his King than reverence for his august state, "What a sly dog he is, to be sure!" "Who is that big man in the long coat ?" said another, who had not participated in the banter of his companions on the Puritanical devices of Charles and his cronies.