Page:Stories after Nature.pdf/36

12 were out of heart, saying, "Why should we sweat thus in our affairs? The more we get, the more is taken away from us; they let us live only that we may surfeit them." All confidence in dealing, all energy and industry were gone.

These three noblemen were walking in a garden, talking on the hated subject of the king's tyranny and the people's sufferings, when Christian, the greatest of them, proposed that they should risk their lives and become the champions of the liberties of the people; that they should sell their vast estates and lands, and convert them into money to obtain arms, etc., for the sustenance of troops. So they departed to consider of the matter, agreeing to meet each other on the following day in that place, and swear an oath. Having thought of the thing, and being fully resolved, feeling enthusiastically the virtue of the cause, they met before the appointed time in the garden, and there swore never to desert each other, or the cause of liberty which they had espoused; nor take any steps without the full consent of all three. Having knelt down and taken this oath on their swords, they parted to gather their fortunes into a heap, and strengthen themselves amongst those who hated, but feared the government. They all found the love of the