Consols had been marked at 49 or 50; the
Gazettes were occupied with accounts of bloody captures of French ships;
Ireland may be said to have been in rebellion, and horrible murders were
committed there; the King sent a message to Parliament telling it that
an invasion might be expected and that it was to be assisted by
"incendiaries" at home; and the Archbishop of Canterbury and eleven
bishops passed a resolution declaring that if the French should land, or
a dangerous insurrection should break out, it would be the duty of the
clergy to take up arms against an enemy whom the Bishop of Rochester
described as "instigated by that desperate malignity against the Faith
he has abandoned, which in all ages has marked the horrible character of
the vile apostate."
In the midst of this raving political excitement three human beings were
to be found who although they were certainly not unmoved by it, were
able to detach themselves from it when they pleased, and to seclude
themselves in a privacy impenetrable even to an echo of the tumult
around them.
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