ng
Service, by seeing an old Lady put her Kerchief to her Nose, look hither
and thither, and, finally, walk out of Church. One whispered another, "A
Plague-Smell, perchance." "No Doubt on't;" and soe, one after another
left, as, at length, did Mother, who declared she beganne to feel herself
ill. On the Cloth being drawn after Dinner, she made a serious Attack on
my Father, upon the Subject of Country Lodgings, which he stoutly
resisted at first, saying,

"If, Wife and Daughters, either the Danger were so immediate, or the
Escape from it so facile as to justify these womanish Clamours, Reason
would that I should listen to you. But, since that the Lord is about our
Bed, and about our Path, in the Capital no less than in the Country, and
knoweth them that are his, and hideth them under the Shadowe of his
Wings--and since that, if the Fiat be indeed issued agaynst us, no
Stronghold, though guarded with triple Walls of Circumvallation, like
_Ecbatana_, nor pastoral Valley, that might inspire _Theocritus_ with a
new Idyl, can hide us, either by its Strength or its Obscurity, from the
Arrow of the Destroying Angel; ye, therefore, seeing these Things cannot
be spoken agaynst, ought to be quiet, and do Nothing rashly. Wherefore,
I pray you, Wife and Daughters, get you to your Knees, before Him who
alone can deliver you from these Terrors; and having cast your Burthen
upon Him, eat your Bread in Peacefulness and Cheerfulness of Heart."

However, we really are preparing for Country Quarters, for young
_Ellwood_ hath this Morning brought us Note of a rustick Abode near his
Friends, the _Penningtons_, at _Chalfont_, in _Bucks_, the Charges of
which suit my Father's limited Means; and we hope to enter on it by the
End of the Week. _Ellwood's_ Head seems full of _Guli Springett_, the
Daughter of Master _Pennington's_ Wife by her first Husband. If Half he
says of her be true, I shall like to see the young Lady. We part with
one Maid, and take the other. _Betty_ was very forward to be left in
Charge; and protest herself willing to abide any Risk for the Sake of the
Family; more by Token she thoughte there was no Risk at alle, having
boughte a sovereign Charm of Mother _Shipton_. Howbeit, on inducing her,
much agaynst her Will, to open it, Nought was founde within but a
wretched little Print of a Ship, with the Words, scrawled beneath it, "By
Virtue of the above Sign." Father called her a silly Baggage, and sayd,
he was glad