t over and read it again. Clearly it brought no unwelcome news, for his
eyes sparkled with joy when he looked up from his reading, and more than
once he laughed aloud. Finally he asked the man Saxon how it had come
into his possession, and whether he was aware of the contents.

'Why, as to that,' said the messenger, 'it was handed to me by no less
a person than Dicky Rumbold himself, and in the presence of others whom
it's not for me to name. As to the contents, your own sense will tell
you that I would scarce risk my neck by bearing a message without I
knew what the message was. I am no chicken at the trade, sir. Cartels,
_pronunciamientos_, challenges, flags of truce, and proposals for
waffenstillstands, as the Deutschers call it--they've all gone through
my hands, and never one, gone awry.'

'Indeed!' quoth my father. 'You are yourself one of the faithful?'

'I trust that I am one of those who are on the narrow and thorny track,'
said he, speaking through his nose, as was the habit of the extreme
sectaries.

'A track upon which no prelate can guide us,' said my father.

'Where man is nought and the Lord is all,' rejoined Saxon.

'Good! good!' cried my father. 'Micah, you shall take this worthy man
to my room, and see that he hath dry linen, and my second-best suit of
Utrecht velvet. It may serve until his own are dried. My boots, too,
may perchance be useful--my riding ones of untanned leather. A hat with
silver braiding hangs above them in the cupboard. See that he lacks for
nothing which the house can furnish. Supper will be ready when he hath
changed his attire. I beg that you will go at once, good Master Saxon,
lest you take a chill.'

'There is but one thing that we have omitted,' said our visitor,
solemnly rising up from his chair and clasping his long nervous hands
together. 'Let us delay no longer to send up a word of praise to the
Almighty for His manifold blessings, and for the mercy wherewith He
plucked me and my letters out of the deep, even as Jonah was saved from
the violence of the wicked ones who hurled him overboard, and it may be
fired falconets at him, though we are not so informed in Holy Writ. Let
us pray, my friends!' Then in a high-toned chanting voice he offered up
a long prayer of thanksgiving, winding up with a petition for grace and
enlightenment for the house and all its inmates. Having concluded by a
sonorous amen, he at last suffered himself to be led upstairs; while
my mother, wh