'Have
you any more against Mr. Lilly?' cried the chairman.
'Yes,' saith the Sollicitor for the Excise, 'since his _Starry
Messenger_ came forth we had our house burnt, and the Commissioners
pulled by their cloaks in the Exchange.' 'Pray, sir, when was this,'
asked old Sir Robert Pye, 'that the house was burnt, and the Aldermen
abused?' 'It was in such a week,' saith he. 'Mr. Lilly, when came the
book forth?' 'The very day of Naseby fight,' answered Mr. Reynolds, 'nor
needs he be ashamed of writing it: I had it daily as it came forth of
the press: it was then found the house to be burnt, and the Aldermen
abused, twelve days before the _Starry Messenger_ came forth.' 'What a
lying fellow art thou,' saith Sir Robert Pye, 'to abuse us so!' This he
spoke to the Sollicitor. Then stood up one Bassell, a merchant: he
inveighed bitterly against me, being a Presbyterian, and would have had
my books burnt. 'You smell more of a citizen than a scholar,' replied
Mr. Francis Drake. I was ordered to withdraw, and by and by was called
in, and acquainted the committee did discharge me. But I cried with a
loud voice, 'I was under a messenger;' whereupon the committee ordered
him or the Serjeant at Arms not to take any fees; Mr.
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