ause, yet gold will be
welcome none the less. Should we fall, we fall like men and Christians.
Should we succeed, we shall see how the perjured James, the persecutor
of the saints with the heart like a nether millstone, the man who smiled
when the thumbs of the faithful were wrenched out of their sockets at
Edinburgh--we shall see how manfully he can bear adversity when it falls
to his lot. May the hand of the Almighty be over us!

'I know little of the bearer of this, save that he professes to be of
the elect. Shouldst thou go to Monmouth's camp, see that thou take him
with thee, for I hear that he hath had good experience in the German,
Swedish, and Otttoman wars.--Yours in the faith of Christ, Richard
Rumbold.

'Present my services to thy spouse. Let her read Timothy chapter two,
ninth to fifteenth verses.'

This long letter I read very carefully, and then putting it in my pocket
returned indoors to my breakfast. My father looked at me, as I entered,
with questioning eyes, but I had no answer to return him, for my own
mind was clouded and uncertain.

That day Decimus Saxon left us, intending to make a round of the country
and to deliver his letters, but promising to be back again ere long. We
had a small mishap ere he went, for as we were talking of his journey
my brother Hosea must needs start playing with my father's powder-flask,
which in some way went off with a sudden fluff, spattering the walls
with fragments of metal. So unexpected and loud was the explosion,
that both my father and I sprang to our feet; but Saxon, whose back
was turned to my brother, sat four-square in his chair without a glance
behind him or a shade of change in his rugged face. As luck would have
it, no one was injured, not even Hosea, but the incident made me think
more highly of our new acquaintance. As he started off down the village
street, his long stringy figure and strange gnarled visage, with my
father's silver-braided hat cocked over his eye, attracted rather
more attention than I cared to see, considering the importance of the
missives which he bore, and the certainty of their discovery should he
be arrested as a masterless man. Fortunately, however, the curiosity
of the country folk did but lead them to cluster round their doors and
windows, staring open-eyed, while he, pleased at the attention which
he excited, strode along with his head in the air and a cudgel of
mine twirling in his hand. He had left golden opinions behi