once more the place which had been so
familiar to him in earlier days. The hopes he had then conceived, and
which, as we have seen, he had so fondly cherished, with regard to the
Society of Friends in that part, had been disappointed; the little company
had dwindled in numbers and declined in religious influence; and when he
took leave of Pyrmont for the last time, it was with a sorrowful heart.

From Minden, accompanied by Sophie Peitsmeyer, he went southwards, and
took up his abode at the little town of Neuveville, on the Lake of Bienne,
in Switzerland.

I spent, he says, two or three days at Neufchatel, and visited many of my
old friends in the place and neighborhood; but it was affecting to find
how many of those I had known years ago were no longer on this earth.
Madame Petavel was as warm-hearted as ever; the professor, her husband,
is ripening for heaven.

John Yeardley had gone to Neuveville with the intention of passing the
winter in Switzerland. After remaining a month, however, he returned to
England; and this change of mind was the result of a remarkable
circumstance. He became silent and reserved, with the air and manners of
one who is not at peace with himself; until one night, when he was heard
to cry out in a loud tone, as though speaking to some one. The next
morning at breakfast he appeared subdued and full of tenderness; and on
his young friend inquiring what had made him cry out in the night, he told
her that he must return home, for there was more work for him to do. He
said that a prospect of service in the gospel had latterly opened before
him, and that as he had greatly desired to remain in Switzerland, he had
striven against the sense of duty and refused to yield; but that during
the night he had had a vision, in which he heard the command repeated to
return home and enter again upon his labor, and that he felt, as he
thought, the touch of the heavenly messenger's hand. This caused him to
call out; and when he awoke, he found that willingness of spirit had taken
the place of his former obstinacy. Thus turned from his own purpose, he
set about to accomplish the will of his gracious Master with his usual
resolution, and they made the best of their way back to England. The
nature of the service which he saw before him is touched upon in the
following passage from a letter, dated Neuveville, the 14th of the Tenth
Month.

My home duties press heavily upon me.... Very long have I thought abou