Micah, Reuben, and Decimus encounter the bibilous roue Sir Gervas Jerome who, speaking of his thirst, claims to be "as dry as a concordance" and states he would welcome arrest as a dissenter and even imprisonment as a welcome change of pace.
Micah thinks Sir Gervas is jesting when he offers his services as a valet; he is so slow to realize that the aristocrat is ruined that Sir Gervas addresses him as "oh most astute and yet most slow-witted master."
Speaking of the Jewish moneylenders who have a hold on his Estate, Sir Gervas moans "the ten tribes have been upon me and I have been harried and wasted, bound, ravished, and despoiled . . . They have hewed into pieces mine estate rather than myself."
Sir Gervas on the dispersal of his retinue in the wake of his bankruptcy: "when the honey-pot is broken it is farewell to the flies."
With Sir Gervas now in their company, Micah's party falls in with a group of puritans heading for rendevous with Monmouth. Decimus adjusts his behavior to match them, singing hymns and expounding faith in the almighty.
Soon, the puritan band is confronted by horse troopers. Decimus, in command, slays an officer (a cornet) under a white flag when he haughtily tries to incite desertion among the dissenters (interestingly similar to action of Balfour of Burley in "Old Mortality"; the same section makes reference to Wappinenschaws and popinjays as in opening chapters of that Scott novel).
After the puritan victory, the minister, Pettigrue, bridles at Decimus' comparison of the bravery of the dissenters to that of Turks he has seen in battle.
"'I trust sir,' said the minister gravely, 'that you do not intend . . . to infer that there is any similarity between the devil-inspired fury of the infidel Saracens and the Christian fortitude of the struggling faithful!'"
"'By no means,' Saxon answered, grinning at me over the minister's head. 'I was but showing how closely the Evil One can imitate the workings of the Spirit.'"
Micah reacts as Decimus, now a hero to the puritans, continues to play the role of the extreme sectary: "I could not but marvel at the depths and completeness of the hypocrisy which had cast so complete a cloak over his rapacious self."
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