r that purpose I have summoned hither a good man and
excellent divine, Master Willis of this neighbourhood, to be efficacious
in that behalf."

I started up, and said in great agitation--"Oh, my lady!"--but had not
proceeded further when I was broken in upon by a voice of thunder--

"Silence, I say! What, is it for the frailness of a reed like you that
such noble enterprise must perish? Make no remonstrance, sir, but do
what is needed, or"----

Although the great lady did not finish her words, I felt an assurance
steal like ice over my soul that my hours were numbered if I hesitated,
and I bowed low, while Mr William Snowton did privily pull me down into
my seat by the hinder parts of my cassock.

"You--you, Master Willis, of all men, should least oppose this godly
step. For the noise thereof will sound unto the ends of the earth, and
make the old Antichrist on his seven hills quake and tremble, and shake
the pitiful spirit of the apostate of Whitehall. Say I not well, my
lords?"

"You say well," ran round the room in a murmur of consent.

"And you--you, Master Willis," she went on, "least of all, should object
to keep a lamb within the true fold--yea, a lamb which you did see with
your own eyes introduced into the same. Remember you nought of godly
Master Waller's in Berkshire, or of the scene you saw in a certain
chamber, where the baptismal waters were poured forth, and murmured like
a pleasant fountain in the dying ears of a devout Christian woman?"

I was so held back with awe that I said not a word, and she went on--

"Oh, if good Master Lees had yet been spared, we should not have asked
for the ministry of trembling and unwilling hands like yours! And now,
my lords--and you, kind gentlemen, my plan as arranged with good Lord
Fitzoswald is this:--I give my grandchild's hand where her heart has
long been bestowed; I then go with her through lanes and byways; under
good escort, to the city of Exeter, where erelong we shall cast in our
lot with certain friends. The bridegroom shall see nought of his bride
till happier days arrive, except at this altar; and you shall go
directly to your respective stations, and be ready at the first blowing
of the horns before which the walls of this Jericho are to fall. In the
next chamber I have made preparation for the ceremony, and in a few
minutes, when I have arranged me for the journey, I will summon you."

Something of this I heard--the sense namely forced its way int