The incident with which this tale commences found Pearson in a state of religious dulness , yet mentally disquieted and longing for a more fervid faith than he possessed . The first effect of his kindness to Ilbrahim was to produce a softened feeling , an incipient love for the child 's whole sect , but joined to this , and resulting , perhaps , from self-suspicion , was a proud and ostentatious contempt of their tenets and practical extravagances . In the course of much thought , however -- for the subject struggled irresistibly into his mind -- the foolishness of the doctrine began to be less evident , and the points which had particularly offended his reason assumed another aspect or vanished entirely away . The work within him appeared to go on even while he slept , and that which had been a doubt when he laid down to rest would often hold the place of a truth confirmed by some forgotten demonstration when he recalled his thoughts in the morning . But , while he was thus becoming assimilated to the enthusiasts , his contempt , in nowise decreasing toward them , grew very fierce against himself ; he imagined , also , that every face of his acquaintance wore a sneer , and that every word addressed to him was a gibe . Such was his state of mind at the period of Ilbrahim 's misfortune , and the emotions consequent upon that event completed the change of which the child had been the original instrument . In the mean time , neither the fierceness of the persecutors nor the infatuation of their victims had decreased . The dungeons were never empty ; the streets of almost every village echoed daily with the lash ; the life of a woman whose mild and Christian spirit no cruelty could embitter had been sacrificed , and more innocent blood was yet to pollute the hands that were so often raised in prayer . Early after the Restoration the English Quakers represented to Charles II . that a `` vein of blood was open in his dominions , '' but , though the displeasure of the voluptuous king was roused , his interference was not prompt . And now the tale must stride forward over many months , leaving Pearson to encounter ignominy and misfortune ; his wife , to a firm endurance of a thousand sorrows ; poor Ilbrahim , to pine and droop like a cankered rose-bud ; his mother , to wander on a mistaken errand , neglectful of the holiest trust which can be committed to a woman . * * * * * A winter evening , a night of storm , had darkened over Pearson 's habitation , and there were no cheerful faces to drive the gloom from his broad hearth . The fire , it is true , sent forth a glowing heat and a ruddy light , and large logs dripping with half-melted snow lay ready to cast upon the embers . But the apartment was saddened in its aspect by the absence of much of the homely wealth which had once adorned it , for the exaction of repeated fines and his own neglect of temporal affairs had greatly impoverished the owner . And with the furniture of peace the implements of war had likewise disappeared ; the sword was broken , the helm and cuirass were cast away for ever : the soldier had done with battles , and might not lift so much as his naked hand to guard his head . But the Holy Book remained , and the table on which it rested was drawn before the fire , while two of the persecuted sect sought comfort from its pages . He who listened while the other read was the master of the house , now emaciated in form and altered as to the expression and healthiness of his countenance , for his mind had dwelt too long among visionary thoughts and his body had been worn by imprisonment and stripes . The hale and weatherbeaten old man who sat beside him had sustained less injury from a far longer course of the same mode of life . In person he was tall and dignified , and , which alone would have made him hateful to the Puritans , his gray locks fell from beneath the broad-brimmed hat and rested on his shoulders . As the old man read the sacred page the snow drifted against the windows or eddied in at the crevices of the door , while a blast kept laughing in the chimney and the blaze leaped fiercely up to seek it .
And sometimes , when the wind struck the hill at a certain angle and swept down XXXXX the cottage across the wintry plain , its voice was the most doleful that can be conceived ; it came as if the past were speaking , as if the dead had contributed each a whisper , as if the desolation of ages were breathed in that one lamenting sound .
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