“Sir, will it please you to alight, and to offer up a few words of exhortation and prayer?”

Harry muttered something about pressing business.  But in his sudden surprise he had not time to think of assuming either the nasal drone or the scriptural words peculiar to these black-coated gentry.  Struck by his tone, the sergeant sprang forward and seized his bridle.

“Whom have we here?” he said; “a lad masquerading in the dress of a preacher.  This must be explained, young sir.”

“Sergeant,” Harry said, “I doubt not that thou art a good fellow, and not one to get a lad in a scrape.  I am the son of a London citizen; but he and my mother are at present greatly more occupied with the state of their souls than with the carrying on of their carnal business.  Being young, the constant offering up of prayers and exhortations has vexed me almost to desperation, and yesterday, while the good preacher who attends then was in the midst of the third hour of his discourse I stole downstairs, and borrowing his hat and cloak, together with his horse, determined to set out to join my uncle, who is a farmer down in Gloucestershire, and where in sooth the companionship of his daughters—­girls of my own age—­suits my disposition greatly better than that of the excellent men with whom my father consorts.”

The soldiers laughed, and the sergeant, who was not at heart a bad fellow, said: 

“I fear, my young sir, that your disposition is a godless one, and that it would have been far better for you to have remained under the ministration of the good man whose hat you are wearing than to have sought the society of your pretty cousins.  However, I do not know but that in the unregenerate days of my own youth I might not have attempted an escapade like yours.  I trust,” he continued, “you are not tainted with the evil doctrines of the adherents of King Charles.”

“In truth,” Harry said, “I worry not my head with politics.  I hear so much of them that I am fairly sick of the subject, and have not yet decided whether the Commons is composed of an assembly of men directly inspired with power for the regeneration of mankind, or whether King Charles be a demon in human shape.  Methinks that when I grow old enough to bear arms it will be time enough for me to make up my mind against whom to use them.  At present, a clothyard is the stick to which I am most accustomed, and as plows and harrows are greatly more in accord with my disposition, I hope that for a long time I shall not see the interior of a shop again; and I trust that the quarrels which have brought such trouble into this realm, and have well-nigh made my father and mother distraught, will at least favor my sojourn in the country, for I am sure that my father will not venture to traverse England for the sake of bringing me back again.”

“I am not sure,” the sergeant said, “that my duty would not be to arrest you and to send you back to London.  But as, in truth, I have no instructions to hinder travelers, I must even let you go.”