This Answer of his I reported to the rest of 1665. my Friends there, and thereupon we raised among us a small Sum of Money, which they put into my Hand for the Jailer; whereupon İ, taking another with me, went to the Jailer with the Money in my Hand, and reminding him of the Terms upon which we accepted the Ufe of his Rooms, I told him, That although we could not pay Chamber-rent or Fees, yet inafmuch as he had now been civil to us, we were willing to acknowledge it by a small Token, and thereupon gave him the Money. He putting it into his Pocket, faid, I thank you and your Friends for it; and to let you fee I take it as a Gift, not a Debt, I will not look on it. to fee how much it is. The Prison Door being then fet open for us, we went out, and departed to our respective Homes. But before I left the Prifon, confidering one Day with myself the different Kinds of Liberty and Confinement, Freedom and Bondage, I took my Pen, and wrote the following Enigma, or Riddle. L OE here a Riddle to the Wife, The RIDDLE. Some Men are free, while they in Prifon lie; 1665. CAUTION. He that can receive it, may; SOLUTIO N. He only's free indeed, that's free from Sin, CONCLUSION. This is the Liberty I chiefly prize, Some little Time before I went to Aylesbury Prifon, I was defired by my quondam Mafter Milton, to take an House for him in the Neighbourhood where I dwelt, that he might go out of the City, for the Safety of himself and his Family, the Peftilence then growing hot in London. I took a pretty Box for him in GilesChalfont, a Mile from me, of which I gave him Notice, and intended to have waited on him, and feen him well fettled in it, but was prevented by that Imprisonment. But now being releafed and returned home, I foon made a Vifit to him, to welcome him. into the Country. After After fome common Difcourfes had paffed 1665. between us, he called for a Manufcript of his; which being brought he delivered to me, bidding me take it home with me, and read it at my Leifure; and when I had fo done, return it to him with my Judgment thereupon. When I came home, and had fet myself to read it, I found it was that excellent POE M, which he entituled PARADISE LOST. After I had, with the best Attention, read it through, I made him another Vifit, and returned him his Book, with due Acknowledgement of the Favour he had done me in communicating it to me. He asked me, how I liked it, and what I thought of it? which I modeftly but freely told him; and after fome further Difcourfe about it, I pleasantly faid to him, Thou haft faid much here of Paradife loft; but what haft thou to say of Paradife found? He made me no Answer, but fate fome Time in a Mufe then brake off that Difcourfe, and fell upon another Subject. ; After the Sickness was over, and the City well cleansed and become fafely habitable again, he returned thither. And when afterwards I went to wait on him there (which I feldom failed of doing, whenever my Occafions drew me to London) he fhewed me his fecond POEM, called PARADISE REGAINED; and in a pleasant Tone faid to me, This is owing to you; for you put it into my Head by the Question you put to me at Chalfont; which before I had Q4 not 1665. not thought of. But from this Digreffion I return to the Family I then lived in. We had not been long at home, about a Month perhaps, before Ifaac Penington was taken out of his Houle in. an arbitrary manner by military Force, and carried Prisoner to Aylefbury Jail again; where he lay three Quarters of a Year, with great Hazard of his Life, it being the Sickness Year, and the Plague being not only in the Town, but in the Jail. Mean while his Wife and Family were turned out of his Houfe, called the Grange at Peter's-Chalfont, by them who had feized upon his Eftate; and the Family being by that means broken up, fome went one Way, others another. Mary Penington herfelf, with her younger Children, went down to her Husband at Aylefbury. Guli, with her Maid, went to Briftol, to fee her former Maid Anne Herfent, who was married to a Merchant of that City, whofe Name was Thomas Bifs, and I went to Aylesbury with the Children; but not finding the Place agreeable to my Health, I foon left it, and returning to Chalfont, took a Lodging, and was dieted in the Houfe of a friendly Man; and after fome Time, went to Brifel to conduct Guli home." Mean while Mary Penington took Lodgings. in a Farm-houfe called Eottrels, in the Parish of Giles-Chalfont, where, when we returned from Bristol, we found her. We had been there but a very little Time, before I was fent to Prifon again upon this Occafion. Occafion. There was, in thofe Times, a Meet- 1665. ing once a Month at the House of George Salter a Friend of Hedgerly, to which we fometimes went; and Morgan Watkins being with us, he and I, with Guli and her Maid, and one Judith Parker, Wife of Dr. Parker, one of the College of Phyficians at London, with a maiden Daughter of theirs (neither of whom were Quakers, but as Acquaintance of Mary Penington were with her on a Vifit) walked over to that Meeting, it being about the Middle of the first Month, and the Weather good. This Place was about a Mile from the House of Ambrofe Bennett the Juftice, who the Summer before had fent me and fome other Friends to Aylesbury Prison, from the Burial of Edward Parret of Amersham; and he, by what Means I know not, getting Notice not only of the Meeting, but (as was fuppofed) of our being there, came himfelf to it; and as he came, catched up a Stackwood-ftick, big enough to have knock'd any Man down, and brought it with him hidden under his Cloak, Being come to the Houfe, he ftood for a while. without the Door, and out of Sight, liftning to hear what was faid, for Morgan was then fpeaking in the Meeting. But certainly he heard very imperfectly, if it was true which we heard he faid afterwards among his Companions, as an Argument that Morgan was a Jefuit, viz. That in his Preaching he trolled over his Latin as fluently as ever be heard any one; whereas Morgan (good Man!) was better |
