I suspect godliness
which shows upon the surface, the snuffling talk, the rolling eyes, the
groaning and the hawking. It is like the forged money, which can be told
by its being more bright and more showy than the real.'

'An apt comparison!' said I. 'But how comes it, sergeant, that you have
given attention to these matters? Unless they are much belied, the Royal
Dragoons find other things to think of.'

'I was one of Mackay's foot,' he answered shortly. 'I have heard of
him,' said I. 'A man, I believe, both of parts and of piety.'

'That, indeed, he is,' cried Sergeant Gredder warmly. 'He is a man stern
and soldierly to the outer eye, but with the heart of a saint within
him. I promise you there was little need of the strapado in his
regiment, for there was not a man who did not fear the look of sorrow in
his Colonel's eyes far more than he did the provost-marshal.'

During the whole of our long ride I found the worthy sergeant a true
follower of the excellent Colonel Mackay, for he proved to be a man of
more than ordinary intelligence, and of serious and thoughtful habit.
As to the two troopers, they rode on either side of me as silent as
statues; for the common dragoons of those days could but talk of wine
and women, and were helpless and speechless when aught else was to the
fore. When we at last rode into the little village of Gommatch, which
overlooks the plain of Sedgemoor, it was with regret on each side that I
bade my guardian adieu. As a parting favour I begged him to take charge
of Covenant for me, promising to pay a certain sum by the month for his
keep, and commissioning him to retain the horse for his own use should I
fail to claim him within the year. It was a load off my mind when I saw
my trusty companion led away, staring back at me with questioning eyes,
as though unable to understand the separation. Come what might, I knew
now that, he was in the keeping of a good man who would see that no harm
befell him.

Chapter XXXIV. Of the Coming of Solomon Sprent

The church of Gommatch was a small ivy-clad building with a square
Norman tower, standing in the centre of the hamlet of that name. Its
great oaken doors, studded with iron, and high narrow windows, fitted
it well for the use to which it was now turned. Two companies of
Dumbarton's Foot had been quartered in the village, with a portly Major
at their head, to whom I was handed over by Sergeant Gredder, with some
account of my capture, and