He was of that stock
which had bred the Pyms and Hampdens of the Civil War. At the
Restoration his father had retired to his Manor of Lenfield and had
mixed no more in politics. Possibly the Restoration was for the general
good of the country rather than the rule of that rabid section of the
Puritans which had caricatured the original spirit in which an appeal to
arms had been made, but Thomas Crosby remained a Puritan, and distrusted
the Stuarts as much as he had ever done. In this atmosphere Gilbert
Crosby had grown to manhood, and since his father's death five years ago
had been master of Lenfield. If he were less of a Puritan than his
father, he was just as opposed to all forms of popery, and had been
quite sensible of the danger which must arise on the accession of James.
He had been active amongst those who were firmly determined to struggle
against the re-establishment of Roman Catholicism in England, but he had
lent himself to no underhand plots against the King, and, although
conscious that there existed an undercurrent of intrigue in favour of
the Duke of Monmouth, neither he nor those with whom he was associated
had expected Monmouth's landing.
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