Church I would have died for, was not a Church stained with innocent
blood. I will cast in my lot, now and for ever, with the only Christian
people that have never persecuted another--the only one, I verily
believe, that follow whithersoever the Master leads.'

At this Andrew's pallid face glowed as if a clear flame shone through
it; he stretched out his hands to Althea, and she gave him both hers,
continuing to say,--

'And what is my native land to me? it is filled with violence and
madness; I fear 'tis accursed of God; I am willing to find my fatherland
wherever you find a home.'

She turned with a defying look towards us; at which Harry began to
laugh, and said, 'How about the rose I had one night from Mistress
Althea Dacre? it is a rose yet--dry and faded truly; but it has not
turned into a nettle.'

'Be generous,' she said, blushing; 'do not remind me of that; I spoke of
it in the days of my folly. I have been taught the plague of my own
heart since, by many a sharp lesson.'

'Well,' said Harry, 'I may truly say the same of myself. It hath pleased
God,' he said reverently, 'to bring me to Himself through suffering. I
trusted overmuch to my own heart; and not till I was stript of all, a
beggar and a slave, did I learn mine own vileness and weakness, and
Christ's all-sufficiency. I thank Him for the teaching. And I think my
Lucy hath gone through the same school; is it not so, sweetheart?' and
I murmured an assent.

'Not one of you,' said Andrew, 'has been so poor a pupil at that
learning as I; but I think my many stripes have surely beaten it into my
hard heart at last, and that I have mastered my task once and for ever.'

'Then,' quoth Harry, 'we are all on one footing so far, and we may thank
Heaven for it. But I cannot fall in with you in your condemning of other
Churches, and the Church of England chiefly. She is not disowned of God,
not quite gone astray from Him; there is in her, I must think, a seed of
life and holiness.'

'Your father went out from her notwithstanding,' says Althea; 'and in my
mind he did well, though I was fool enough to condemn him at the time.'

'With your leave,' says Harry, 'I think he was driven out, because of
those nice and subtle points of doctrine, that our rulers cruelly
enforced, and he could not honestly assent to. But I have heard him say,
'tis his firm persuasion that out of this misgoverned English Church
there shall yet rise great good, and marvellous blessings,