Memoir and Diary of John Yeardley, Minister of the GospelYeardley, John
Religion
Memoir and Diary of John Yeardley, Minister of the Gospel
Yeardley, John
Clergy -- United States -- Biography; Quakers -- Biography; Yeardley, John, 1786-1858
At length they arrived at Erndebrueck, and drove to an inn; but not finding
their luggage, they went to another, and while they were preparing to
start for Berlenburg, William Seebohm went to the Custom-office to show
the ticket of clearance they had received on entering the Prussian
territory at Burbach. This ticket should have obviated all delay attendant
on the examination of the luggage; but it happened, most unfortunately,
that the custom officer was the landlord of the inn they first came to.
Their leaving his house without taking refreshment was, in his eyes, an
unpardonable offence, and on William Seebohm presenting to him the ticket,
his countenance and language betrayed the passion which raged in his
breast. He declared their trunks should be examined in the strictest
manner; and when they represented the necessity they were under of
speedily pursuing their journey, and desired him to despatch the business
as quickly as possible, he replied by detaining them until they were
obliged to send back the horse and guide, and consent to pass the night
under his roof. He then demanded their passports, and finding they had not
been _vise'd_ at all the towns through which they had passed, and
that the travellers had departed from the route described in them, he sent
for a gendarme, and placed them under arrest. They were not allowed to
take anything from their trunks without being watched by the gendarme; and
when they took out a letter of recommendation, written by Dr. Steinkopf to
the clergyman of the place, whom they had requested to call upon them, the
gendarme insisted on first reading it. On their expostulating with the
landlord at being treated in this manner, instead of making a direct
reply, he strutted up and down the room, repeating continually, "Ja, ja,
ja, ja! they shall know what they went away from my house for, and that
there is a custom-office here." The Friends took their evening meal, as is
usual in Germany, in-one of the sleeping-rooms--that which had been
allotted to Martha Savory and Martha Towell. Into this chamber, when they
had eaten, the landlord brought a party of eight or nine men to take their
supper. After supper the men smoked, and some of them did not even refrain
from showing their ill-breeding in a more disagreeable way. William
Seebohm overheard the landlord and the gendarme say to each other, "These
people are travelling this way to visit the Separatists, and strengthen
them in their religious opinions; but we will disappoint them."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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