"_Cheatly._ So long as you forbear all Violence, you are safe; but, if you strike here, we command the _Fryers_, and will raise the _Posse_....
[_A Noise of Tumult without, and blowing a Horn._]
_Shamwell._ They are up in the Friers; Pray Heav'n the Sheriff's Officers be not come.
_Cheatly._ 'Slife, 'tis so! 'Squire, let me conduct you----This is your wicked Father with Officers.
[_Cry without, the Tip-Staff! an Arrest! an Arrest! and the horn blows._]
[_Enter Sir William Belfond, and a Tip-Staff, with the Constable, and his Watchmen; and, against them, the Posse of the Friers drawn up, Bankrupts hurrying to escape._]
_Sir Will._ Are you mad, to resist the Tip-Staff, the King's Authority?
[_They cry out, An Arrest! several flock to 'em with all sorts of Weapons, Women with Fire-Forks, Spits, Paring Shovels, &c._]
_Tip-Staff._ I charge you, in the King's Name, all to assist me.
[_Rabble beat the Constable, and the rest run into the Temple. Tip-Staff runs away._]."
So that we see how an ordinary sheriff's officer and the civil authorities were treated when they attempted to execute the law; but, further on in the play, we find a Lord Chief Justice's warrant, backed up by a military force--and then we see the difference.
"_Truman._ What do all these Rabble here?
[_The Debtors run up and dozen, some without their Breeches, others without their Coats; some out of Balconies; some crying out, Oars! Oars! Sculler! Five Pounds for a Boat! The Inhabitants all come out arm'd as before; but as soon as they see the Musqueteers, they run, and every one shifts for himself._]
And almost at the close of the play one of the characters, _Sir Edward Belfond_, moralizes thus:
"Was ever such Impudence suffer'd in a Government? _Ireland's_ conquer'd; _Wales_ subdued; _Scotland_ united: But there are some few Spots of Ground in _London_, just in the Face of the Government, unconquer'd yet, that hold in Rebellion still. Methinks 'tis strange, that Places so near the King's Palace should be no Parts of his Dominions. 'Tis a Shame to the Societies of the Law, to countenance such Practices: Should any Place be shut against the King's Writ, or Posse Comitatus?"
This right of sanctuary was taken from Whitefriars by William III., the nest of rogues, vagabonds, and thieves broken up, the occupants dispersed, and law reigned supreme in that once defiant place.