Page:Susanna Wesley (Clarke 1886).djvu/65

Rh my reply to Palmer, which, whether I am in prison or out of it, I hope to get finished by the next session of Parliament, for I have no more regiments to lose. {{right|"{{sc|S. Wesley}}."

But his worst trials were yet to come, and the manner in which they affected his wife and family are best told by himself. He was in debt to one of the people he had angered by his zeal at the recent Election, and, as he had not the wherewithal to pay, was speedily arrested, and sent to Lincoln jail. Here is the account given by his own hand to the Arch- bishop of York:—

{{rh|MY LORD,||"Lincoln Castle, June 25th, 1705. }}

" Now I am at rest, for I am come to the haven where I've long expected to be. On Friday last (June 23rd), when I had been, in christening a child, at Epworth, I was arrested in my churchyard by one who had been my servant, and gathered my tithe last year, at the suit of one of Mr. Whichcott's relations and zealous friends (Mr. Pinder), according to their promise when they were in the Isle before the Election. The sum was not thirty pounds, but it was as good as five hundred. Now they knew the burning of my flax, my London journey, and their throwing me out of my regiment, had both sunk my credit and exhausted my money. My adversary was sent to where I was on the road, to meet me, that I might make some proposals to him. But all his answer (which I have by me) was, that I must immediately pay the whole sum or go to prison. Thither I went with no great concern for myself, and find much more civility and satisfaction here than in brevibus gyaris of my own Epworth.