They now attacked him furiously about their grievances, and insisted that he should relinquish his oppressive powers.

They insisted that his footmen should be kept in order, that the parson should pay his share of the rates, that the children of the parish should be allowed to fish in the trout-stream, and to gather blackberries in the hedges.

They at last went so far as to demand that he should acknowledge that he held his estate only in trust for them.
His distress compelled him to submit.

They, in return, agreed to set him free from his pecuniary difficulties, and to suffer him to inhabit the manor-house; and only annoyed him from time to time by singing impudent ballads under his window.
The neighbouring gentlefolks did not look on these proceedings with much complacency.

It is true that Sir Lewis and his ancestors had plagued them with law-suits, and affronted them at county meetings.