hip the god are wont to be on good terms with the goddess.
A hardy old soldier, I should judge, from his feature and attire.'

'One who hath seen much service abroad,' I answered.

'Ha! ye are lucky to ride to the wars in the company of so accomplished
a cavalier. For I presume that it is to the wars that ye are riding,
since ye are all so armed and accoutred.'

'We are indeed bound for the West,' I replied, with some reserve, for in
Saxon's absence I did not care to be too loose-tongued.

'And in what capacity?' he persisted. 'Will ye risk your crowns in
defence of King James's one, or will ye strike in, hit or miss, with
these rogues of Devon and Somerset? Stop my vital breath, if I would not
as soon side with the clown as with the crown, with all due respect to
your own principles!'

'You are a daring man,' said I, 'if you air your opinions thus in every
inn parlour. Dost not know that a word of what you have said, whispered
to the nearest justice of the peace, might mean your liberty, if not
your life?'

'I don't care the rind of a rotten orange for life or liberty either,'
cried our acquaintance, snapping his finger and thumb. 'Burn me if
it wouldn't be a new sensation to bandy words with some heavy-chopped
country justice, with the Popish plot still stuck in his gizzard, and
be thereafter consigned to a dungeon, like the hero in John Dryden's
latest. I have been round-housed many a time by the watch in the old
Hawkubite days; but this would be a more dramatic matter, with high
treason, block, and axe all looming in the background.'

'And rack and pincers for a prologue,' said Reuben. 'This ambition is
the strangest that I have ever heard tell of.'

'Anything for a change,' cried Sir Gervas, filling up a bumper. 'Here's
to the maid that's next our heart, and here's to the heart that loves
the maids! War, wine, and women, 'twould be a dull world without them.
But you have not answered my question.'

'Why truly, sir,' said I, 'frank as you have been with us, I can scarce
be equally so with you, without the permission of the gentleman who has
just left the room. He is the leader of our party. Pleasant as our short
intercourse has been, these are parlous times, and hasty confidences are
apt to lead to repentance.'

'A Daniel come to judgment!' cried our new acquaintance. 'What ancient,
ancient words from so young a head! You are, I'll warrant, five years
younger than a scatterbrain like myself, and yet you t