ill not join the army the townspeople will burn down your house,
and will kill you all."

Toeltschig. "That may happen, but we can not help it, it is against our
conscience to fight."

Causton. "If you do not mean to fight you had better go and hide in the
woods, out of sight of the people, or it will be the worse for you; and
you had better go before the enemy comes, for then it will be too late
to escape, the townspeople will certainly kill you."

Toeltschig. "You forget that Gen. Oglethorpe promised us exemption from
military service, and we claim the liberty he pledged."

Causton. "If the Count, and the Trustees and the King himself had agreed
on that in London it would count for nothing here, if war comes it will
be FIGHT OR DIE. If I were an officer on a march and met people who
would not join me, I would shoot them with my own hand, and you can
expect no other treatment from the officers here."

Toeltschig. "We are all servants, and can not legally be impressed."

Causton. "If the Count himself were here he would have to take his gun
on his shoulder, and all his servants with him. If he were living on
his estate at Old Fort it would make no difference, for the order of the
Magistrates must be obeyed. If the English, to whom the country belongs
must fight, shall others go free?"

Toeltschig finally yielded so far as to tell him the number of men in
their company, "it could do no harm for we could be counted any day,"
but their names were resolutely withheld, and service firmly refused.

Then the townspeople took up the cry. Should they fight for these
strangers who would not do their share toward defending the land? They
would mob and kill them first! They only injured the colony at any rate,
for they worked so cheaply that they lowered the scale of wages; and
besides they received money from many people, for their services, but
spent none because they made everything they needed for themselves!

Still the Moravians stood firm in their position, indeed they could
do nothing else without stultifying themselves. The instructions from
Zinzendorf and the leaders of the Church at Herrnhut, with the approval
of the lot, were definite,--they should take no part in military
affairs, but might pay any fines incurred by refusal. To Oglethorpe and
to the Trustees they had explained their scruples, making freedom of
conscience an essential consideration of their settling in Georgia, and
from them they had received as