nmouth. 'Such a man is very like to find himself on neither side, but
in the very heart of the briars. It may be as well, however, that we
should move his way, so as to give him the chance of declaring himself.'

'In any case, as your Majesty remembers,' said Saxon, 'we had determined
to march Bristolwards and attempt the town.'

'The works are being strengthened,' said I, 'and there are five thousand
of the Gloucestershire train-bands assembled within. I saw the labourers
at work upon the ramparts as I passed.'

'If we gain Beaufort we shall gain the town,' quoth Sir Stephen
Timewell. 'There are already a strong body of godly and honest folk
therein, who would rejoice to see a Protestant army within their gates.
Should we have to beleaguer it we may count upon some help from within.'

'Hegel und blitzen!' exclaimed the German soldier, with an impatience
which even the presence of the King could not keep in bounds; 'how can
we talk of sieges and leaguers when we have not a breaching-piece in the
army?'

'The Lard will find us the breaching-pieces,' cried Ferguson, in his
strange, nasal voice. 'Did the Lard no breach the too'ers o' Jericho
withoot the aid o' gunpooder? Did the Lard no raise up the man Robert
Ferguson and presairve him through five-and-thairty indictments and
twa-and-twenty proclamations o' the godless? What is there He canna do?
Hosannah! Hosannah!'

'The Doctor is right,' said a square-faced, leather-skinned English
Independent. 'We talk too much o' carnal means and worldly chances,
without leaning upon that heavenly goodwill which should be to us as a
staff on stony and broken paths. Yes, gentlemen,' he continued, raising
his voice and glancing across the table at some of the courtiers, 'ye
may sneer at words of piety, but I say that it is you and those like you
who will bring down God's anger upon this army.'

'And I say so too,' cried another sectary fiercely.

'And I,' 'And I,' shouted several, with Saxon, I think, among them.

'Is it your wish, your Majesty, that we should be insulted at your very
council board?' cried one of the courtiers, springing to his feet with
a flushed face. 'How long are we to be subject to this insolence because
we have the religion of a gentleman, and prefer to practise it in the
privacy of our hearts rather than at the street corners with these
pharisees?'

'Speak not against God's saints,' cried a Puritan, in a loud stern
voice. 'There is a voice within me w