It was not treasonable talk, for the ale had not driven all the sense out of him; but it was as near treasonable as might be; and it was above all against the Catholics that he raged.

I would not defile this page by writing down all that he said; but neither Her Majesty nor the Duke of York escaped his venom; there appeared nothing too bad to be said of them; and he spoke of other names, too, of the Duchess of Portsmouth whom he called by vile names (yet not viler than she had rightfully earned) and the Duchess of Cleveland; and he began upon the King, but stopped himself.
"But you are a Church of England man ?" he said.

"Well, so am I now, at least I call myself so, though I should be a Presbyterian; but--" And he stopped again.
Now all this was mighty interesting to me; for it was worse than anything I had heard before; and yet he said it all as if it was common talk among his kind, where he came from; and it was very consonant with what the King had set me to do, which was to hear what the common people had to say.

My gorge rose at the man again and again; but I was a tolerable actor in those days, and restrained myself very well.

When he went at last he clapped me on the back, as if it were I who had done all the bragging.
"You are the right kind of fellow," he said, "and, by God, I wish there were more of us.