should have such a one to look after him.

Here, then, was one good friend settled down finally for life. Another
warned me that I was wasting my best years in the hamlet. A third, the
most respected of all, advised me openly to throw in my lot with the
insurgents, should the occasion arise. If I refused, I should have
the shame of seeing my aged father setting off for the wars, whilst
I lingered at home. And why should I refuse? Had it not long been the
secret wish of my heart to see something of the great world, and what
fairer chance could present itself? My wishes, my friend's advice, and
my father's hopes all pointed in the one direction.

'Father,' said I, when I returned home, 'I am ready to go where you
will.'

'May the Lord be glorified!' he cried solemnly. 'May He watch over
your young life, and keep your heart steadfast to the cause which is
assuredly His!'

And so, my dear grandsons, the great resolution was taken, and I found
myself committed to one side in the national quarrel.

Chapter VII. Of the Horseman who rode from the West

My father set to work forthwith preparing for our equipment, furnishing
Saxon out as well as myself on the most liberal scale, for he was
determined that the wealth of his age should be as devoted to the cause
as was the strength of his youth. These arrangements had to be carried
out with the most extreme caution, for there were many Prelatists in
the village, and in the present disturbed state of the public mind any
activity on the part of so well known a man would have at once attracted
attention. So carefully did the wary old soldier manage matters,
however, that we soon found ourselves in a position to start at an
hour's notice, without any of our neighbours being a whit the wiser.

His first move was to purchase through an agent two suitable horses at
Chichester fair, which were conveyed to the stables of a trusty Whig
farmer living near Portchester, who was ordered to keep them until
they were called for. Of these animals one was a mottled grey, of great
mettle and power, standing seventeen and a half hands high, and well up
to my weight, for in those days, my dears, I had not laid on flesh, and
weighed a little under sixteen stone for all my height and strength.
A critic might have said that Covenant, for so I named my steed, was a
trifle heavy about the head and neck, but I found him a trusty, willing
brute, with great power and endurance. Saxon, who when fully