o the
Church was lost for sixty years, and many of the troubles of the next
reign were sown. The next step was to arrest ten of the Puritan
leaders; and then to eject from their benefices three hundred clergy of
that school. Among these was Mr Marshall, the pastor of our friends.
Lady Louvaine was sorely troubled. She said they were now as sheep
without a shepherd, and were but too likely to have a shepherd set over
them who would fleece and devour the sheep. Of these clergy some joined
the Presbyterians, some the Brownists--whom people now began to call
Independents: others remained in the Church, ceasing to minister, and
following such callings as they deemed not unbecoming the position of a
Christian minister--chiefly tutorship and literature. Mr Marshall was
in the last class. He said better times might come, and he could not
see his way to desert the Church, though her ways to him at this present
were somewhat step-motherly.

"But how, Mr Marshall, if the Church cast you forth?" asked Temperance.

"Then must I needs go," he answered with a smile. "But that, look you,
were not my deed, nor should I be responsible for it before God. So
long as I break not her laws, she hath no right to eject me; and so long
as she abideth in the truth, I have no right to desert her."

"But the bishops abide not in the truth, as I take it."

"The bishops be not the Church," replied he. "Let the Articles and
Homilies be changed, with evil tendency, and then that is to change the
Church. I go forth of her then at once; for she should be no longer the
Church of my faith, to which I sware obedience, and she hath not that
right over me to require me to change with her. But so long as these
are left unaltered, what matter though bishops change? They are not
immortal: and very sure am I they are not infallible."

"What think you, Mother?" said Edith.

"Children," replied Lady Louvaine, laying down her knitting in her lap,
"I can get no further at this present than one line of Saint John: `He
Himself knew what He would do.' I do not know what He will do. It may
be, as it then was, something that none of all His disciples can guess.
One step at a time is all He allows us to see, and all He bids us take.
`He calleth His own sheep by name, and leadeth them out'; but also, `He
goeth before them.' At times He leads them, I think, outside the fold;
and if He is outside, and we hear His voice, we must needs go to Him.
Yet is thi