he hostel, and entirely so by the time that we had eaten our suppers,
paid our reckoning, and got ready for the road.

Before we set off I bethought me of the paper which my mother had
slipped into my hand on parting, and drawing it from my pouch I read
it by the rushlight in our chamber. It still bore the splotches of the
tears which she had dropped on it, poor soul, and ran in this wise:--

'Instructions from Mistress Mary Clarke to her son Micah, on the twelfth
day of June in the year of our Lord sixteen hundred and eighty-five.

'On occasion of his going forth, like David of old, to do battle
with the Goliath of Papistry, which hath overshadowed and thrown into
disrepute that true and reverent regard for ritual which should exist in
the real Church of England, as ordained by law.

'Let these points be observed by him, namely, to wit:

'1. Change your hosen when the occasion serves. You have two pairs in
your saddle-bag, and can buy more, for the wool work is good in the
West.

'2. A hare's foot suspended round the neck driveth away colic.

'3. Say the Lord's Prayer night and morning. Also read the scriptures,
especially Job, the Psalms, and the Gospel according to St. Matthew.

'4. Daffy's elixir possesses extraordinary powers in purifying the blood
and working off all phlegms, humours, vapours, or rheums. The dose is
five drops. A small phial of it will be found in the barrel of your left
pistol, with wadding around it lest it come to harm.

'5. Ten golden pieces are sewn into the hem of your under doublet. Touch
them not, save as a last resource.

'6. Fight stoutly for the Lord, and yet I pray you, Micah, be not too
forward in battle, but let others do their turn also.

Press not into the heart of the fray, and yet flinch not from the
standard of the Protestant faith.

'And oh, Micah, my own bright boy, come back safe to your mother, or my
very heart will break!

'And the deponent will ever pray.'

The sudden gush of tenderness in the last few lines made the tears
spring to my eyes, and yet I could scarce forbear from smiling at the
whole composition, for my dear mother had little time to cultivate the
graces of style, and it was evidently her thought that in order to make
her instructions binding it was needful to express them in some sort of
legal form. I had little time to think over her advice, however, for I
had scarce finished reading it before the voice of Decimus Saxon, and
the clink of t