chased on the moors;
often he had been hidden cunningly in shepherd's cottages, twice he
had eluded the dragoons by immersing himself in peat-bogs, and once he
had been wounded. His face could never at any time have been otherwise
than refined and spiritual, but now it was that of an ascetic, worn by
prayer and fasting, while his dark blue eyes glowed when he was moved
like coals of fire, and the golden hair upon his head, as the sun
touched it, was like unto an aureole. Standing in the embrasure of
that gallery, which had so many signs of the world which is, in the
pictures of sport upon the walls and the stands of arms, he seemed to
be rather the messenger and forerunner of the world which is to come.
As he looks out upon the fair spring view, he is settling something
with his conscience, and is half praying, half meditating, for, in his
lonely vigils, with no company but the curlew and the sheep, he has
fallen upon the way of speaking aloud.

"There be those who are called to live alone and to serve the Lord
night and day in the high places of the field, like Elijah, who was
that prophet, and John the Baptist, who ran before the face of the
Lord. If this be Thy will for me, oh, God, I am also willing, and Thou
knowest that mine is a lonely life, and that I bear in my body the
marks of the Lord Jesus. If this be my calling, make Thy way plain
before Thy servant, and give me grace to walk therein with a steadfast
heart. He that forsaketh not father and mother ... and wife for His
name's sake, is not worthy." And then a change came over his mood.

"But the Master came not like the Baptist; He came eating and
drinking; yea, He went unto the marriage of Cana in Galilee, and He
blessed little children and said, 'For of such is the Kingdom of God.'
Thou knowest, Lord, that I have loved Thy children, and when a bairn
has smiled in my face as I baptized it into Thy name, that I have
longed for one that would call me father. When I have seen a man and
his wife together by the fireside, and I have gone out to my
hiding-place on the moor, like a wild beast to its den, I confess, oh,
Lord, I have watched that square of light so long as I could see it,
and have wondered whether there would ever be a home for me, and any
woman would call me husband. Is this the weakness of the flesh; is
this the longing of the creature for comfort; is this the refusing of
the cross; is this my sin? Search me, oh, God, and try me." And again
the g