t escape, and that the
impulse of joy is almost one with the impulse of affection. At the
abatement of the London plague we see Britons kiss each other in the
streets, and at the relief of besieged towns, in our own day, staid
persons have caressed one another, unmindful of what they did. So it was
now with the members of this driven sect. The spirit of joy and a closer
bond of affection went infectiously through the gathering Church. Upon
the first Sunday they met together in the open air, and sang words that
they verily believed had been written in particular prophecy for
themselves at this very hour.

"If it had not been the Lord that was on our side."

The psalm rose from every throat with the swelling tide of joy.

"If it had not been the Lord that was on our side when men rose up
against us."

Susannah, advancing, a little belated, to the rural preaching which was
held in a dip of the plain, heard the lusty chant of irrepressible
gladness rising to the blue heavens, and quickened her steps. In spite
of herself she was carried into song by the enthusiasm which seemed to
dart like a flame from the assembled multitude and enveloped her.

"Blessed be the Lord who hath not given us as a prey to their
teeth. Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the
fowler: the snare is broken, and we are escaped. Our help is in the
name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth."

While she was exalted by the song she saw the face of her friend the
Danite for the first time since the night on which they had ridden so
far together. He was standing now upon the outskirts of the crowd as one
who had newly come from a solitary journey. When he met Susannah's eye
his solitary look passed into one of lofty and intense comradeship. He
ran to her and embraced her, and emptied an inner pocket of a purse of
money which he thrust eagerly into her possession.

"I have killed one of them," he said, speaking eagerly, as a child tells
of some exploit. "His pockets were fat with money, and it is yours."

"See!" He took the fragment of linen upon which the stain of Halsey's
blood had turned dark with time, and showed her a new and brighter stain
upon its edges.

All around them were men and women, who now, for the first time since
the hour of some terrible parting, spied kindred or comrades. By a
common impulse these moved toward one another, and there was an
interlude in the service for sobs of joy