The Waverley novels, by Sir Walter Scott, complete in 12 vol., printed from the latest English ed., embracing the author's last corrections, prefaces & notes.

242 WAVERLEY NOVELS.
was sure to ask him to take the foils, and was equally certain to be, after
less or more resistance, victorious in the encounter; so, in consideration of
so many triumphs, the good Sir Henry almost forgave him the sins of rebellion and puritanism. Then, if his slow and formal step was heard in the
passage's approaching the gallery, Dr. Rochecliffe, though he never introduced him to his peculiar boudoir, was sure to meet Master Tomkins in
some neutral apartment, and to engage him in long conversations, which
apparently had great interest for both.
Neither was the Independent's reception below stairs less gracious than
above. Joceline failed not to welcome him with the most cordial frankness;
the pasty and the flagon were put in immediate requisition, and good cheer
was the general word. The means for this, it may be observed, had grown
more plenty at Woodstock since the arrival of Dr. Rochecliffe, who, in
quality of agent for several royalists, had various sums of money at his
disposal. By these funds it is likely that Trusty Tomkins also derived his
own full advantage.
In his occasional indulgence in what he called a fleshly frailty, (and for
which he said he had a privilege,) which was in truth an attachment to
strong liquors, and that in no moderate degree, his language, at other times
remarkably decorous and reserved, became wild and animated. IIe sometimes talked with all the unction of an old debauchee, of former exploits,
such as deer-stealing, orchard-robbing, drunken gambols, and desperate
affrays in which he had been engaged in the earlier part of his life, sung
bacchanalian and amorous ditties, dwelt sometimes upon adventures which
drove Phoebe Mayflower from the company, and penetrated even the deaf
ears of Dame Jellicot, so as to make the buttery in which he held his
carousals no proper place for the poor old woman.
In the middle of these wild rants, Tomkins twice or thrice suddenly ran
into religious topics, and spoke mysteriously, but with great animation, and
a rich eloquence, on the happy and pre-eminent saints, who were saints, as
he termed them, indeed-Men who had stormed the inner treasure-house of
Heaven, and possessed themselves of its choicest jewels. All other sects he
treated with the utmost contempt, as merely quarrelling, as he expressed it,
like hogs over a trough about husks and acorns; under which derogatory
temlns, he included alike the usual rites and ceremonies of public devotion,
the ordinances of the established churches of Christianity, and the observances, nay, the forbearances, enjoined by every class of Christians.
Scarcely hearing, and not at all understanding him, Joceline, who seemed
his most fiequent confidant on such occasions, generally led him back into
some strain of rude mirth, or old recollection of follies before the Civil
Wars, without caring about or endeavouring to analyze the opinion of this
saint of an evil fashion, but fully sensible of the protection which his presence afforded at Woodstock, and confident in the honest meaning of so
freespoken a fellow, to whom ale and brandy, when better liquor was not to
be come by, seemed to be principal objects of life, and who drank a health
to the King, or any one else, whenever required, provided the cup in which
he was to perform the libation were but a brimmer.
These peculiar doctrines, which were entertained by a sect sometimes
termed the Family of Love, but more commonly Ranters,0' had made some
progress in times when such variety of religious opinions were prevalent,
The Fiairilists were ori-iinallv founded hy David George of Delft, an enthusiast, who believed himself the
Messiah, Thev branched oli into various sects of Grildletonians, Familists of Lhe Mountains, of the Valley-;
Fulntm li.ts of Cape Order, &C. &c., of the Scattered Flock, &c. &c. Arimongo doctrines too wild and boul to [lo
quo:ed, they held the lawfulness of occasional confornmity with any predominant sect when it suited thi ir
convenience. of conplying with the order of any iaListrUate, or superior power, however sinful.'hey disowned the principal doctrines of Christianity, as a law whichl had been supersededd y the advent of David
George —nay, obeyed the wildest and loosest dictates of evil passions, and are said to have practiied amonl
thenselves the grossest libertinismi. See Edward's Ganlgrena, Pagitt's Heresioiraphia. and a very curnous
work written by Ludovic Claxton, one of the leaders of the sect, called the Lost Sheep Fouln,-Small quarto.
London, 1660.