of
those men who were trained in the parliamentary armies. In many ways
they were more like those fanatic Saracens, who believe in conversion by
the sword, than the followers of a Christian creed. Yet they have this
great merit, that their own lives were for the most part clean and
commendable, for they rigidly adhered themselves to those laws which
they would gladly have forced at the sword's point upon others. It is
true that among so many there were some whose piety was a shell for
their ambition, and others who practised in secret what they denounced
in public, but no cause however good is free from such hypocritical
parasites. That the greater part of the saints, as they termed
themselves, were men of sober and God-fearing lives, may be shown by the
fact that, after the disbanding of the army of the Commonwealth, the old
soldiers flocked into trade throughout the country, and made their mark
wherever they went by their industry and worth. There is many a wealthy
business house now in England which can trace its rise to the thrift and
honesty of some simple pikeman of Ireton or Cromwell.

But that I may help you to understand the character of your
great-grandfather, I shall give an incident which shows how fervent and
real were the emotions which prompted the violent moods which I have
described. I was about twelve at the time, my brothers Hosea and Ephraim
were respectively nine and seven, while little Ruth could scarce have
been more than four. It chanced that a few days before a wandering
preacher of the Independents had put up at our house, and his religious
ministrations had left my father moody and excitable. One night I had
gone to bed as usual, and was sound asleep with my two brothers beside
me, when we were roused and ordered to come downstairs. Huddling on our
clothes we followed him into the kitchen, where my mother was sitting
pale and scared with Ruth upon her knee.

'Gather round me, my children,' he said, in a deep reverent voice, 'that
we may all appear before the throne together. The kingdom of the Lord is
at hand-oh, be ye ready to receive Him! This very night, my loved ones,
ye shall see Him in His splendour, with the angels and the archangels in
their might and their glory. At the third hour shall He come-that very
third hour which is now drawing upon us.'

'Dear Joe,' said my mother, in soothing tones, 'thou art scaring thyself
and the children to no avail. If the Son of Man be indeed coming