A summons, couched in no very measured terms, was
drawn up, to the purport that the fortress should be surrendered, and
all persons, goods, arms, and munitions therein, to the mercy of
parliament; and by the next day, before two o'clock, her ladyship to
return her answer, otherwise at her peril. Their valour grew hotter with
the reading of this cruel message, which they secretly hoped and
suspected she would refuse. The drum-major was called in, one Gideon
Greatbatch by name--a long, straight-haired, sallow-faced personage, of
some note among the brethren for zeal and impiety. By this we mean that
awful and profane use of Scripture phraseology with which many of these
gifted preachers affected to interlard their everyday discourse,
attaching a ludicrous solemnity to matters the most trivial and
unimportant.
In delineating this species of character, unfortunately not extinct in
our own days, we do not hold it up to ridicule, but to reprehension.
Irreverence and profanity, under whatever pretext, are without excuse,
even beneath the mask of holy zeal and ardent devotion.
The man stalked in with little ceremony and less manners.
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