minister with me; and he believed
they would be all willing also. I then told him that my friend the
minister was a Frenchman, and could not speak English, but that I would
act the clerk between them. He never so much as asked me whether he was
a Papist or Protestant, which was indeed what I was afraid of. But I say
they never inquired about it. So we parted; I went back to my clergyman,
and Will Atkins went in to talk with his companions. I desired the
French gentleman not to say any thing to them till the business was
thorough ripe, and I told him what answer the men had given me.

Before I went from their quarter they all came to me, and told me, they
had been considering what I had said; that they were very glad to hear I
had a clergyman in my company; and they were very willing to give me the
satisfaction I desired, and to be formally married as soon as I pleased;
for they were far from desiring to part from their wives; and that they
meant nothing but what was very honest when they chose them. So I
appointed them to meet me the next morning, and that in the mean time
they should let their wives know the meaning of the marriage law; and
that it was not only to prevent any scandal, but also to oblige them
that they should not forsake them, whatever might happen.

The women were easily made sensible of the meaning of the thing, and
were very well satisfied with it, as indeed they had reason to be; so
they failed not to attend all together at my apartment next morning,
where I brought out my clergyman: and though he had not on a minister's
gown, after the manner of England, or the habit of a priest, after the
manner of France; yet having a black vest, something like a cassock,
with a sash round it, he did not look very unlike a minister; and as for
his language I was interpreter.

But the seriousness of his behaviour to them, and the scruple he made of
marrying the women because they were not baptized, and professed
Christians, gave them an exceeding reverence for his person; and there
was no need after that to inquire whether he was a clergyman or no.

Indeed I was afraid his scruple would have been carried so far as that
he would not have married them at all: nay, notwithstanding all I was
able to say to him, he resisted me, though modestly, yet very steadily;
and at last refused absolutely to marry them, unless he had first talked
with the men and the women too; and though at first I was a little
backward to it