It was much talked of, that spirits haunted this dungeon, and walked there, and that many had died in it; some thinking to terrify the prisoners therewith. But G. Fox told them, that if all the spirits and devils in hell were there, he was over them in the power of God, and feared no such thing; for Christ, their priest, would sanctify the walls and the house to them; he who bruised the head of the devil; as the priest was to cleanse the plague out of the walls of the house under the law. Now the time of the sessions at Bodmin being come, the prisoners drew up their suffering case, and sent the paper thither; upon reading of which, the justices gave order, that the door of Doomsdale, (thus the dungeon was called,) should be opened, and that they should have liberty to cleanse it, and to buy their meat in the town. Having obtained this liberty, they writ to London, and desired Anne Downer, a young woman already mentioned in this work, to come down, and to buy and dress their meat: which she being very willing to do, was therein greatly serviceable to them; for she was a good writer, and could take things in shorthand. They also sent up a relation of their sufferings to the protector; who thereupon sent down an order to the governor of Pendennis Castle, to examine the matter. On which occasion Hugh Peters, one of the protector’s chaplains, told him they could not do George Fox a greater service for the spreading of his principles in Cornwall than to imprison him there. This was not altogether untrue, for he was much visited, and many were turned from darkness to the light; notwithstanding the mayor of Launceston was a fierce persecutor, casting in prison all he could get; and he did not stick to search substantial grave women, for letters, as supposed. In Devonshire it was not much better; for many of those called Quakers, that travelled through the country, were taken up and whipped, under pretence of being vagabonds: nay, some clothiers, that were going to mill with their cloth, and other substantial men, were seized and whipped; and Henry Pollexfen, who had been a justice of peace for the most part of forty years before, was cast into prison, under pretence of being a Jesuit. In the meanwhile Edward Pyot, who had been a captain, and was a man of good understanding in the laws and rights of the nation, writ a large letter to the lord chief justice John Glyn, wherein he plainly set before him his unlawful dealings; and queried with him, whether his saying if ye will be uncovered, (or put off your hats,) I will hear you, and do you justice, was not an overthrow of the laws that were made to maintain right and justice. Many other particulars, and among the rest, that of G. Fox’s striking major Ceely were also mentioned in this letter. G. Fox himself writ also several papers, wherein the odiousness of persecution was plainly set forth.