170 THE DOVER ROAD 



— that's more my line. Hexpeck a Christian man to 

 heat fruit ! " 



" But you expect people to buy yours, don't you ? " 



" Naw, I don't hexpeck nothin'." 



" Then why do you grow it ? " 



" Bekause I suppose I'm a fool ; that's about the 

 size of it. Good day t'ye, mister." 



XXXI 



The history of Faversham town is extremely long and 

 interesting, but as it does not lie on the direct road to 

 Dover, it will not be necessary to go into a very detailed 

 account of it. It is a curious, half-maritime borough 

 whose Mayor wears a chain of office decorated with 

 badges of oars and rudders ; a town whose records 

 include such events as the burial of King Stephen, his 

 Queen, and his son Eustace ; and at a very much later 

 date, the attempted escape of James the Second. 

 Faversham fishermen recognized the fugitive King as 

 he crouched, shivering in the hoy at Shellness on that 

 bitter December morning of 1688, and, robbing him 

 of his watch and chain and his money, they brought 

 him a prisoner to the Mayor's house, where he was 

 detained two days, guarded by a mob of countrymen, 

 on whom his terror-stricken appeals to be allowed to 

 escape had no effect. 



" He who is not with me is against me," exclaimed 

 the frantic bigot. " My blood will be upon your heads 

 if I fall a martyr." But the dignity of a martyr was 

 not to be his. A troop of Life-guards was sent to 

 effect his release from the ignorant mob, who only 

 refrained from stealing his diamond shoe-buckles 

 because they thought them to be pieces of glass. 

 James's terror of the Faversham fishers is reflected in 

 his manifesto issued years afterwards, in which he offers 

 an amnesty to his " rebel subjects," but expressly 



