Brother Beissel interrupted loudly, forgetting his usual subtility, "Brother Jabez, I doubt much whether our constable will feel bounden by the practices of the early church." "That I will not," growled the constable, who had been admitted to the council; "the Act does set forth the tax must be paid, and the tax will I have ere I leave." "But the Act doth not apply to us, I tell thee, or else I should counsel immediate obedience to thy demands," I said as calmly as I could; "we refuse not to pay this paltry tribute because we care overmuch for the little money we have; but we do not think it right for us to pay." "Of that I know not," came another cavernous growl from the depths of the constable. "I know I leave not till I am paid the tax." "Well, I for one shall pay it not," I cried out. "If our Kloster labors were merely for the enrichment of our coffers, then I should pay the tax as being my share of the support of the province. But we work not for ourselves further than is necessary for our slender needs. The overflow of our abundance hath ever gone to the poor and needy settlers far and wide. If we came not to the relief of these, then would the province have the burden of their support. In all ages it hath been the custom and the law to grant immunity of taxation to the church and to those whose lives are spent in charity. I say I shall not pay the tax, for it is neither right, nor custom, nor law." "If thou payest not the taxes thou goest to jail, for so the Act declares," bellowed the constable. "So be it," I replied quietly, "and I fear not but I shall have worthy company." "Thou goest not alone with this ungodly man," answered me Brother Elimelech--his secular name being Emanuel Eckerling--as he stood bravely by my side. "I too go with thee into the camp of the Philistines," said Brother Jephune, brother to Elimelech, also coming to my side. Another of the Eckerlings, Brother Jotham, stepped over to me and said quietly: "Even if it be to the stocks or the gallows I go with thee." "And if I go with thee, Brother Jabez, as I surely will, then thou hast all the sons of my mother with thee," said Brother Onesimus. "With all these Eckerlings--Emanuel, Samuel, Gabriel, and Israel--I fear naught, not even our formidable friend, the tax collector," I said gayly, not at all disturbed by his fierce looks and scowls at me, whom he regarded as the instigator of all this little rebellion, although in truth there were more than the Eckerlings and myself who thought it not right to pay the taxes. But thus it ever hath been, for doth not the Scriptures say that out of the ten thousand who gathered to fight under the banner of Gideon only three hundred were worthy to be led against the enemy? "The devil take ye all for a lot of pious fools if ye go not with me at once," thundered the constable, choking with wrath, so that I greatly feared from his purple face he might perish from the palsy.