ore till they were at the house door, for the sense of fate
hung over him like a cloud. His cool equable soul was stirred to
its depths. There was surely a grim fore-ordering in this chain of
incidents. But for the horse's colic there would have been no halt.
But for his skill in horse doctoring the sick beast would have been
cut loose, and Colonel Flowerdue's party would have met only a coach
laboring through the snow and would not have halted to discover its
occupants.... He was a prisoner bound by a promise, but this meeting
with Flowerdue had opened up a channel to communicate with London and
that was not forbidden. It flashed on him suddenly that the change of
mind which he had suffered was no longer a private matter. He had now
the power to act upon it.

He was extraordinarily averse to the prospect. Was it mere petulance
that had swung round his opinions so violently during the journey? He
examined himself and found his new convictions unshaken. It was what the
hot-gospellers would call a "Holy Ghost conversion." Well, let it rest
there. Why spread the news beyond his own home? There were doctors
enough inspecting the health of the State. Let his part be to stand
aside.

With something like fear he recognised that that part was no longer
possible. He had been too directly guided by destiny to refuse the last
stage. Cromwell was waiting on a providence, and of that providence
it was clear that fate had made him the channel. In the coach he had
surrendered himself willingly to an unseen direction, and now he dared
not refuse the same docility. He, who for usual was ripe, balanced,
mellow in judgment, felt at the moment the gloomy impulsion of the
fanatic. He was only a pipe for the Almighty to sound through.

In the hall at Downing the logs were stirred to a blaze, and food and
drink brought in a hospitable stir.

"I have a letter to write before I sleep," Mr. Lovel told his daughter.
"I will pray from Colonel Flowerdue the use of his cabinet."

Cecily looked at him inquiringly, and he laughed.

"The posts at Chastlecote are infrequent, Cis, and I may well take the
chance when it offers. I assure you I look forward happily to a month of
idleness stalking Tony's mallards and following Tony's hounds."

In the cabinet he wrote half a dozen lines setting out simply the change
in his views. "If I know Oliver," he told himself, "I have given him
the sign he seeks. I am clear it is God's will, but Heaven help the