e.

As we returned to our quarters after dismissing our men we came upon a
great throng of the rough Bagworthy and Oare miners, who were assembled
in the open space in front of the Cathedral, listening to one of their
own number, who was addressing them from a cart. The wild and frenzied
gestures of the man showed us that he was one of those extreme sectaries
whose religion runs perilously near to madness. The hums and groans
which rose from the crowd proved, however, that his fiery words were
well suited to his hearers, so we halted on the verge of the multitude
and hearkened to his address. A red-bearded, fierce-faced man he was,
with tangled shaggy hair tumbling over his gleaming eyes, and a hoarse
voice which resounded over the whole square.

'What shall we not do for the Lord?' he cried; 'what shall we not do for
the Holy of Holies? Why is it that His hand is heavy upon us? Why is it
that we have not freed this land, even as Judith freed Bethulia? Behold,
we have looked for peace but no good came, and for a time of health, and
behold trouble! Why is this, I say? Truly, brothers, it is because we
have slighted the Lord, because we have not been wholehearted towards
Him. Lo! we have praised Him with our breath, but in our deeds we have
been cold towards Him. Ye know well that Prelacy is an accursed thing--a
hissing and an abomination in the eyes of the Almighty! Yet what have
we, His servants, wrought for Him in this matter? Have we not seen
Prelatist churches, churches of form and of show, where the creature is
confounded with the Creator--have we not seen them, I say, and have we
not forborne to sweep them away, and so lent our sanction to them? There
is the sin of a lukewarm and back-sliding generation! There is the cause
why the Lord should look coldly upon His people! Lo! at Shepton and at
Frome we have left such churches behind us. At Glastonbury, too, we have
spared those wicked walls which were reared by idolatrous hands of old.
Woe unto ye, if, after having put your hands to God's plough, ye turn
back from the work! See there!' he howled, facing round to the beautiful
Cathedral, 'what means this great heap of stones? Is it not an altar of
Baal? Is it not built for man-worship rather than God-worship? Is it not
there that the man Ken, tricked out in his foolish rochet and baubles,
may preach his soulless and lying doctrines, which are but the old dish
of Popery served up under a new cover? And shall we suffer