t, and when he released her, thrust us both out
the door, saying: "Please leave me at once. If you do not, I fear I shall
never let her go. Take care of her, Ned. Good-by!"

The door closed on us, and when Frances had put on her vizard, she
followed me upstairs to see Betty.

I was not admitted to Betty's room, so I went back to the printing shop
for a moment, and George gave me the key to the cipher, in which we were
to write to each other. His letters were to be sent under cover to Lilly,
and mine were to go to an address in Paris which George would send to me.

Long afterwards George told me of his adventures in making his escape,
but I shall give them now in the order of their happening rather than in
the order of time in which I learned them.

Leaving the Old Swan within ten minutes after I had said good-by to him,
George crossed London Bridge, attired in his Quaker disguise, and made
his way to Deptford, where he preached in the streets. From Deptford
he followed the river by easy stages to Sheerness, where he lodged nearly
a week, awaiting a boat that would answer his purpose. Had he attempted
to board a vessel, he would have been seized and examined; therefore his
plan was to grow violent in his preaching, and, if possible, provoke the
authorities to place him on board one of the outgoing crafts; that being
a favorite method of the king's men in getting rid of the too blatant
fanatics in Sheerness.

The Dutch sea captains were fanatics almost to a man, and the exiled
exhorters found them always willing to help their persecuted brethren of
the faith.

And so it happened with George in Sheerness. He was on the dock exhorting
vehemently against the evils of the time, laying great stress on the
wickedness of the king and denouncing the vileness of the court. Two of
the king's officers tried to silence him, but failing, ordered him to
leave England by a certain Dutch boat then waiting in the harbor with its
pennant up. He protested and struggled, but at last was forced aboard,
raving against those godless Balaamites, the clergy of the Established
Church, who, with the devil, he declared, were behind his persecution.

So well did George play his part that a collection was taken up among the
passengers of the Dutch boat to help the good man so vilely put upon.
There was a sweet bit of irony in the fact, learned afterwards, that the
officers who forced George aboard the Dutch ship were at Sheerness for
the purpos