ouncils, and thrusts straight for the heart instead of fencing and
foining at the extremities, we shall find ourselves as Argyle and
Rumbold. What mean these two days wasted at Axminster at a time when
every hour is of import? Is he, every time that he brushes a party
of militia aside, to stop forty-eight hours and chant "Te Deums" when
Churchill and Feversham are, as I know, pushing for the West with every
available man, and the Dutch grenadiers are swarming over like rats into
a granary?'

'You are very right, Colonel Saxon,' the Mayor answered. 'And I trust
that when the King comes here we may stir him up to more prompt action.
He has much need of more soldierly advisers, for since Fletcher hath
gone there is hardly a man about him who hath been trained to arms.'

'Well,' said Saxon moodily, 'now that Argyle hath gone under we are face
to face with James, with nothing but our own good swords to trust to.'

'To them and to the justice of our cause. How like ye the news, young
sirs? Has the wine lost its smack on account of it? Are ye disposed to
flinch from the standard of the Lord?'

'For my own part I shall see the matter through,' said I.

'And I shall bide where Micah Clarke bides,' quoth Reuben Lockarby.

'And to me,' said Sir Gervas, 'it is a matter of indifference, so long
as I am in good company and there is something stirring.'

'In that case,' said the Mayor, 'we had best each turn to his own work,
and have all ready for the King's arrival. Until then I trust that ye
will honour my humble roof.'

'I fear that I cannot accept your kindness,' Saxon answered. 'When I am
in harness I come and go early and late. I shall therefore take up my
quarters in the inn, which is not very well furnished with victual,
and yet can supply me with the simple fare, which with a black Jack of
October and a pipe of Trinidado is all I require.'

As Saxon was firm in this resolution the Mayor forbore to press it upon
him, but my two friends gladly joined with me in accepting the worthy
wool-worker's offer, and took up our quarters for the time under his
hospitable roof.

Chapter XIX. Of a Brawl in the Night

Decimus Saxon refused to avail himself of Master Timewell's house and
table for the reason, as I afterwards learned, that, the Mayor being a
firm Presbyterian, he thought it might stand him in ill stead with the
Independents and other zealots were he to allow too great an intimacy
to spring up between them. Inde