o as well to abide."

"Metrusteth all shall be well," said Isoult, with a sigh; "yet if I
might have known how it should be with them, I had gone with an heart
the lighter."

"A wilful man," responded Philippa; "let him be."

Lady Frances said in her letter, "Dear heart, God is not gone from
Devon. Fear not for us, only pray; and wheresoever we be, and
howsoever, let us abide in Him."

At last the preparations were completed. Simon and Marian Pendexter had
been installed in office, with orders to write in a month: three sumpter
mules were laden with the family luggage: and the last farewells were
taken. The party mounted their horses. First rode John Avery on
Bayard, with his wife behind him on the pillion; then, on Blanche, a
white mare, came Ursula, with Kate strapped before her; on the black
farm mare, which had no particular name, rode Tom, with Barbara behind,
and Walter before him; and lastly, on a wiry white nag, came Robin, with
Philippa on the pillion. So they moved slowly away from the home which,
for aught they knew, they might never see again.

It was a trial which cost Isoult Avery many tears. Barbara, too, wept;
but no one else, only when Philippa spoke, it was in that short,
constrained manner with which some people hide sorrow. Little Kate was
in high glee, until she saw her mother weep; and then she looked grave
and thoughtful--for about ten minutes.

When they reached the end of the lane which led into the high road from
Bradmond, they found Dr Thorpe seated on his bay horse, awaiting them.
Behind, on a brown nag, was Dickon, with a bundle strapped at his back.

"Come, friends mine!" cried Dr Thorpe. "If you urge on your horses no
faster, we shall sleep on the common to-night." Then as Bayard came up
with him, he added in a lower tone, "It was too true, Jack. Fourteen
houses were sacked in Bodmin last night."

"Of them that had enclosed?"

"Mostly, but not all," he answered. "They opened the cellars, and set
the conduits a-flowing with wine; then, having well drunken, marched to
the church, where they cast the new service-book into a bonfire [Note
1]; and at after surrounded Father Prideaux [a fictitious person] his
house, shouting and singing in uproarious wise, calling upon him to come
forth and set himself at their head. (A fair body to be head of!) By
God's providence, he was not within; but it was full two hours ere they
would depart, for all the handmaid's telling of them t