“My father and those with him picked out fifteen, including the two sergeants, as having formed part of the body of plunderers; and the general had the whole tied up and flogged severely, then and there, and declared that, the next time an outrage upon persons who had received letters of protection came to his ears, he would shoot every man who was proved to have been concerned in it.  He also gave orders that a well-conducted noncommissioned officer, and four men, should be sent at once to Davenant Castle, and should there take up their quarters as a guard against any party of marauders, with the strictest orders to cause no annoyance or inconvenience to the inhabitants of the castle.

“I learned afterwards that Mr. Conyers, who had been interesting himself greatly on behalf of the ladies of the castle, is a great friend of the lords justices, and other members of the council, and is also acquainted with the general, which will account for the prompt measures taken to punish the marauders—­a very rare and exceptional matter, I can tell you.”

“I am sure we are greatly indebted to your father and you, for so promptly taking measures to assist my mother,” Walter said.  “I have no doubt the castle would have been burned, as well as plundered, if it had not been for your rescue of them.”

“It is not worth thinking about, Walter.  We are heavily your debtors, still, for the kindness of your father and yourself to me at Derry, and indeed on all other occasions.  Besides, it was the least we could do, seeing that it was my grandfather’s hatred of your family which brought the matter about.”

“What became of your grandfather,” Walter asked, “when you interrupted his sermon?”

“He fell down in a fit,” John replied; “and perhaps it was the best thing he could do, for I don’t know what my father and he would have said to each other, had it not been so.  He was carried home, and he has not been the same man since.  I don’t think the subject was ever alluded to between my father and him; but I think that being balked, just at the moment when he thought he had obtained the object of his hopes and prayers for the last forty years, has almost broken his heart.

“He goes about the house, scarce speaking a word, and seems to have lost almost all his energy.  He has ceased to read the family prayers, and to hold forth morning and night.  I do think he considers that the Lord has cheated him out of his lawful vengeance.  It is awfully sad, Walter, though it is strange, to see such a travesty of religion as the tenets of my grandfather and some of the old men who, like him, represent the views of Cromwell’s soldiers.

“Their religion cannot be called true Christianity.  It is the Judaism of the times when the Jews were among the most ignorant of peoples.  To me it is most shocking, and I would infinitely rather be a Mohammedan than hold such a faith as theirs.  I thank God that my father and mother have shaken off such a yoke, and brought me up according to the teaching of the New Testament, rather than that of the Old.”