t the price
of eggs and butter would go up gallantly, for more soldiers were daily
expected to defend Bristol, and he had further to tell of one of the
captains preaching in the Minster, and the market people flocking in to
hear him. Jeph had been outside, for there was no room within, but he
had scrambled upon an old tombstone with a couple of other lads, and
through the broken window had seen the gentleman holding forth in his
hat and feather, buff coat and crimson scarf, and heard him call on all
around to be strong and hew down all their enemies, even dragging the
false and treacherous woman and her idols out to the horse gate and
there smiting them even to the death.

"Who was the false woman?" asked Steadfast.

"I wot not! There was something about Aholah, or some such name, but
just then a mischievous little jackanapes pulled me down by the leg,
and I had to thrash him for it, and by the time I had done, Dick, the
butcher's lad, had got my place and I heard no more."

Whether the Captain meant Aholah or Athaliah, or alluded to Queen
Henrietta Maria, or to the English Church, Jeph's auditors never knew.
The baby began to cry, and Patience to feed him with the milk and water
that had been warmed at the fire; his father and the boys went out to
finish the work for the night, little Rusha running after them.

Presently, she gave a cry and darted up to her father "The soldiers!
the soldiers!" and in fact three men with steel caps, buff coats, and
musquets slung by broad belts were coming into the yard.

Kenton took up his little girl in his arms and went forward to meet
them, but he soon saw they did not look dangerous, they were dragging
along as if very tired and footsore and as if their weapons were a heavy
weight.

"It's the goodman," said the foremost, a red-faced, good-natured looking
fellow more like a hostler than a soldier, "have you seen Captain
Lundy's men pass this way?"

"Not I!" said Kenton, "we lie out of the high road, you see."

"But I saw them, a couple of hours agone, marching into Bristol," said
Jephthah coming forward.

"There now," said the man, "we did but stop at the sign of the 'Crab'
the drinking of a pottle, and to bathe Jack's foot near there, and we
have never been able to catch them up again! How far off be Bristol?"

"A matter of four mile across the ferry. You may see it from the hill
above."

He looked stout enough though he gave a heavy sigh of weariness, and the
other t