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Show iiis voice was reassuring. "But the spies...." She spoke with urgency. "They won't be looking for Separatist ministers." Although he spoke with confidence, he knew her fears were not unfounded. It was the age old story: Kings rule by arbiter. Subjects follow by decree. And dissenters are punished by and by. During the reigns of Elizabeth, James I, and Charles I, the three sovereigns he had seen in his lifetime, religious men had been burned at the stake, hung from the gallows, disembowelled alive, drawn and quartered, or left to die of starvation in prison. Most recently, Bishop Laud was trying to identify and track down every Puritan minister, but most especially the Separatists whom he considered his lawful prey because of their persistent cries for separation of church and state. What he would witness today made him shudder. Such atrocities belonged to another day and age. Curse Bishop Laud and his campaign against Puritans! "If you're going, you'd better go now or you'll miss the ferry," Hannah handed him his hat. "I really would like pigeon pie fer supper," he teas«: d . At the door, he kissed away the furrow of worry |