scandal, a
weakening of the faith of my poor flock, and a grievous discouragement
to those that remain."

"'A living dog is better than a dead lion,' says the wise man. Besides,
it is apresumingon His providence, when He opens away for our escape,
and we, of our own wilfulness and folly, neglect the blessing. 'Do
thyself no harm.' Provide for thine own life, and run not as the horse
and mule, that have no understanding, into the very throat of thine
enemies, and them that seek thine hurt."

The first speaker was a man of plain but comely appearance, habited in a
coarse doublet buckled about the waist with a leathern girdle. A round
woollen cap, from beneath which a few straight-combed locks hung about
his face, gave a quaint and precise aspect to his figure. His features,
though slightly wrinkled, did not betoken either age or infirmity: but
his whole appearance indicated a robust and vigorous frame, capable both
of exertion and endurance. The other individual exhibited a more
ungainly form and deportment. He had not the same look of benevolence
and good-will to man which irradiated the features of the first, of whom
it might be truly said, that his inward affections did mould and
constrain his outward image into their resemblance, so that meekness and
benignity shone through his countenance from the ever-glowing spirit of
love and Christian charity within. There was a sharp and shrewd
intelligence in the eye of the latter speaker which showed that some
considerations of selfish and worldly wisdom might, by possibility,
mingle with his unerring notions of duty. Yet was he a man of great
piety and worth, and well fitted as a counsellor in times of peril and
distress.

"Ralph Bradshaw," replied the other, "thou hast been my tried friend and
my stay in this waste and howling wilderness, and I have found thy
counsel hitherto wholesome and pleasant; but," continued Marsh, with a
heavy sigh, "I have not told thee how Sir Roger Barton's servants have
made diligent search for me in Bolton, and have given strict charge to
my brother Robert that he should, by to-morrow at the latest, appear
with me at Smethells, else shall he and my poor mother answer before him
at their peril. By God's grace, I would not leave these weaklings of the
flock to suffer for my sake."

"Leave this matter until thou depart; I will devise some means for their
relief. I would not have thy life needlessly put in hazard, seeing how
few men have been r