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desired that the hashed chickens might remind them of Him who would have gathered Hierusalem as a hen gathereth her chickens, but she would not, that the mutton might recall King David, who was once a shepherd, that the veal might put them in mind of the parable of the prodigal son, for whose return his father killed the fatted calf, that the capon might render them mindful of the cock that crowed three times in the hearing of Peter, that the knuckle of bacon might lead them to think of that herd of swine, into which the devils entered and hurried them head long into the sea; and that the fish might remind them of the whale which swallowed the prophet Jonas, as well as of that which had been lately cast ashore at Greenwich, for a prodigy and a portent to the people. From the remains of a lobster were clicited various fanciful allusions to the red-hatted cardinals, the horns of the scarlest beast of Rome, and the papistical copes and surplices of which the shell was the emblem: and thus having exhausted his own oratory, as well as the patience of Sir John, the final blessing was pronounced, and the party had permission to fall upon the "creature-comforts" set before them."

There was a maid of all work in the house named Rachel, a plump and comely country wench, though she appeared to be somewhat simple in her understanding, and rather dawdling in her movements. For this latter offence she was so often and so sharply chidden by her master, that his meek wife was sometimes fain to interfere in her behalf, reminding him that she was but a country malkin, who did not yet understand her business, and ought not to be so angrily rebuked, lest, like her namesake, the daughter of Laban, she should set up the voice of lamentation and bitter weeping, and refuse to be comforted. She inculcated, moreover, the virtues of patience, long-suffering, forgiveness, charity, and universal love; calling to his recollection that Joshua was the servant of Moses, Elisha of Elijah, Gehazi of Elisha; and finally, that St. Peter, St. Andrew, and St. Philip, were all the servants of the Saviour, concluding and enforcing her homily with various texts of Scripture, to which her husband seemed to listen with a most impatient resignation.

Notwithstanding thesc appearances, Sir John had soon reason to conclude, from certain passages he had observed, that there was a perfectly good understanding between the master and the maid, and suspected that all the peevish abuse lavished upon the latter, was merely intended as a blind. He had more than once seen a glass of Dick's cordial slyly handed to Rachel, immediately after one of these fierce scoldings, and exchanged for a kiss.

Lamenting the necessity of staying at home himself on account of the gout, the landlord made a point of sending his wife every evening to the tabernacle; upon which occasions, he was always closely closeted with Rachel, desiring the ostler to mind the house, and call him if he was wanted. Sir John, indeed, had violent misgivings as to the reality of the gout, which he believed to be merely assumed to afford an opportunity for these clandestine meetings, as upon several occasions, in the absence of his wife, he had seen him utterly forget his hobble.

Other circumstances conspired to give him a complete insight into this man's pharisaical character. He was fond of angling, and having ordered the ostler to collect some worms for bait, they proceeded to the water, when, turning his back, he desired him to put them on the hook, but to be quite sure they were previously dead, as they were all God's creatures, and we had no right to torment them. Although he saw them afterwards wriggling in the stream, he continued this canting strain, inveighing against the cruelty of others, and declaring that he himself was filled with tenderness and truth, and compassionate even to the worm; for he was meek and lowly of heart, and knew, from the first epistle of St. Peter, who was himself a

fisherman, that God giveth grace to the humble. The landlady having once sent Sir John into the cellar to draw some ale, he perceived the conscientious Mr. Lovegrace Righteous filling up the casks from a huge can of water, a circumstance he was desired not to mention, but which, he was told, was absolutely necessary to prevent scandal to the house, the liquor having such an overplus of strength, that one of the Lord's people had become very nearly intoxicated only the day before. As if aware that his conduct required some justification in point of morality, he reminded his auditor that on certain occasions an exception was granted to the common rules of honesty, and even of humanity; instancing the cases of Ehud, Jael, Samson, and David, and declaring that he did nothing except for the honour of the saints and the glory of the Lord, whose servant he was, although an unworthy one.

The baronet was delighted at this confirmation of the hypocrisy with which he loved to brand the whole party, and of which occasional examples were doubtless to be met, as they will be at all periods of spiritual effervescence, more especially when godliness is, in a worldly sense, a great gain. None but a Cavalier, however, would deny that the great body of the Puritans were imbued, even to their heart's core, with a fervent spirit of devotion, and attested by the pure morality of their lives the sincerity of their religious convictions, although they might be fantastically rigid in some of their observances.

Had he been at all dis posed to exercise a dispassionate judgment, the baronet would have at least admitted the landlady's genuine meekness and piety, of which many other equally incontestable specimens were presented on the following Friday, when the prayer-meeting was held at the Protector's Head. This was a club instituted for purposes very different from those by which associations of the same name are now characterized. Its members consisted of the shop-keepers and better sort of artisans from Steyning, together with farmers and millers from the adjacent country, who met every Friday evening for the purpose of seeking the Lord and expounding the Scripture, or, in other words, to pray and preach. For this object, they had selected the Protector's Head, in compliment to the peculiar patronage enjoyed under his government by the Independents, to which sect they belonged. Paying the landlord for the use of his room, they observed a strict fast during their sojourn under his roof, devoting themselves strictly to religious purposes while they remained, and parting as they had met, with a solemn, but by no means a morose or forbidding, decorum. Humble as were the stations in life of this rustic flock, there was a pure and lofty enthusiasm in their worship that exalted them above their sphere, spiritualizing their nature, and imparting even a character of sublimity to their devotion. Imagining that all the miserable pomp and magnificence of the creature must be utterly insignificant to the Creator, and that his noblest temple was an innocent and devout heart, they swept utterly away from their thoughts all the empty gorgeousness of houses built with hands, while they disclaimed all the dignities and distinctions of an established hierarchy. Every place became instantly consecrated that was devoted to the true worship; every individual was a qualified minister, the moment he became sanctified by grace and blameless in his life. In communing with God, the world and all its vain distinctions were to be altogether put aside; they wished to meet their Creator, as it were, face to face, feeling that in his awful presence the spirit must appear more acceptable in its humility, when it shook off all the tinsel trappings and vainglorious ceremonies of the flesh.

It was an impressive sight to witness the brethren of this rural congregation converging together from the surrounding country, some on foot, some on little rough ponies, and others on huge cart-horses, all attired in decent,

sober garments, of the same general fashion as our landlord's, all wearing long swords or rapiers by their sides, in proo of their resolution to put down the recent plotters against the government, and all exhibiting the same expression of countenance, only varying from the grave to the austere. From the expected presence of Fear-the-Lord Goodenough, a celebrated preacher of that period, the meeting was unusually numerous, so that Sir John, or Timothy, as he was now called, had enough to do in attending to their horses, and feeding such of them (which, however, constituted but a small portion) as were exempted by their masters from the general fast.

Having accomplished this duty in a manner that would not have altogether discredited a professional ostler, and feeling a vehement inclination to hear this celebrated preacher, if it were but for five minutes, he betook himself to the open door of the apartment in which the little flock were assembled. It was a large but low room, with two massive beams across the ceiling, a sanded floor, and plain whitewashed walls, with a black skirtingboard. Over the fireplace hung the before-mentioned act against profane swearing, framed and glazed; on one side of which was suspended Faithorne's allegorical print of Cromwell; between the pillars, on the other, a large sampler, containing the Lord's Prayer, with the name and age of its juvenile embroideress; and around the walls were nailed coarse prints of the twelve apostles, alternating with twelve of the parliamentarian generals, whose names and exploits were printed beneath their portraits. Prayers were concluded, and Fear-the-Lord Goodenough was already perspiring with the energy of his exertions. He was one of the Boanerges class, one of the sons of thunder, who sought to terrify and shake the very souls of his auditors by the vehemence of his voice and manner, and the harrowing awfulness of his denunciations.

In spite of the quaint phraseology which he affected, and the nasal draw! in which he occasionally indulged, it was not easy to listen to him without catching a portion of his holy enthusiasm, and being absorbed in his discourse. Even Sir John was struck by the scene before him, as he contemplated the stern sectarists, each man sitting in breathless silence, with his sword by his side, and well-thumbed Bible in his hand; every eye riveted upon the preacher; every countenance varying with the passions which he excited; while the tears, that now and then stole along the furrowed cheeks of the listeners, dropped unnoticed upon their beards, whence they trickled down upon the Bibles that they held. In confirmity to the prevalent practice of spiritualizing the occurrences of the day, he alluded to the whale of sixty feet in length, which had come up the river to Greenwich, obviously sent to the great city as a sign and a warning, that like the people of Nineveh, when they listened to the preaching of Jonah, they might proclaim a fast and repent of their sins, if they wished to avoid the judgments of the Lord.

After warning them against the various heretics of the day, particularly against those who still sighed for toys and popish trinkets, for altars, images, hoods, surplices, copes, caps, palls, albs, rockets, croisiers, mitres, crosses, and all the traditions, ceremonies, and unsanctified superstitions of Rome, he bade them recall the times when they were persecuted and tormented by the star-chamber, and hunted down by the Archpriest of Lambeth, whom he called a tyrannical Nimrod, a politic Achitopnel, a wicked Ha man, a cunning Caiaphas, a juggling Pilate, a bloody-minded Herod, and a persecuting Saul. For this deliverance from the oppressor, with all his proctors, pursuivants, apparitors, officials, advocates, surrogates, and officers of the spiritual and prerogative courts, whose very names stank in the nostrils of the Lord, he called upon them to be grateful. He then proceeded to denounce the use of organs, whose noise he affirmed to be no more pleasing to Heaven, than was the roaring of the bulls of Bashan

when Og their king passed by them in triumph. From all such abominations he warned them to turn aside, if they wished to free from the wrath of the Lord." And do we not deserve his judgments?" he exclaimed, after having expatiated at some length upon this subject—“ay, such an instant and terrible judgment as was inflicted upon those Syrian cities, whose site is now covered by the bitter waters of the Dead Sea; - do we not, I say, merit such a doom, for not utterly crushing and extirpating the seed of the old and accursed serpent that is among us? Have we not many in the land who would sting, even unto death, the children of Israel: who would sacrilegiously overthrow the New Jerusalem which we have builded up; and slay with the sword the ruler and the high priest, whom the Lord himself hath set over us? Yea, had we not in this very county, ay verily, within a few miles of our tabernacle, one of the worst of the Canaanites, a Belial, an Ashtaroth, a Satan; one who might well bear the baronet's bloody hand, since he was for ever plotting to dip his own in the blood of God's chosen saints, and is not his name Sir John Compton ?"

"No! you ragamuffin cushion-cuffer!" bellowed the choleric baronet, utterly unable to repress his passion, and throwing the hat of one of the company at the head of the preacher. Had an earthquake opened beneath their feet, the party could not have been struck with a more sudden consternation and amazement. A fiery indignation succeeded. Swords were hastily drawn, and two or three rushed forward to seize him, amid confused cries of, "Smite the blasphemer on the mouth! Strike him dead, even as Ananias was stricken who lied unto God! Pin the Sisera to the ground with a nail through his temples! Down with the Amalekite! Down with the Philistine! Strike him with the sword, as Peter struck Malchus!"

Sir John would certainly have been roughly treated and perhaps dangerously wounded by some of these zealots, who were incensed almost to phrensy, had not their minister called out in a powerful voice, which drowned every other, Harm him not, -touch not a hair of his head : -- - he is delivered into our hands by the Lord, even as Achan was to Joshua, to be consumed for troubling us. Peradventure he is one of the enemies of the Protector; a delinquent, a plotter, and a malignant."

-

"Search him! search the Moabite!" cried several voices at this suggestion, upon which he was hurried into the next room, where they presently found several broad pieces and a gold watch concealed in a belt round his body, which were eagerly exhibited as abundant confirmation of their suspicions. At this moment a groom, who had stopped to refresh his horses, and had been drawn into the room by the uproar, exclaimed, "That's Sir John Compton, I'll take my oath, that rides the black blood-horse; I've seen him out many a time with the hounds.". -"And lo !" cried one of the company, who was examining the inner case of the watch "here are the Compton arms, with the initials I. C. beneath them!" A shout of triumph burst from the whole assemblage at this discovery, while several fell upon their knees to return thanks, and confused cries of- "A judgment! a providence! a manifest interference! the visible finger of the Lord! let him be gibbeted on high like Haman, the plotter against the Lord's people!" A consultation was now held touching the disposal of their prize, when it was decided to bind him hand and foot, and keep him a close prisoner for the night, (which had already begun to shut in,) the whole congregation pledging themselves to meet on the Sabbath morning, and escort him in triumphant procession to the jail at Lewes, that so they might afford a public irrefragable testimony of the special favour the Lord had vouchsafed to this his chosen flock, in making it the instrument of his just vengeance upon the scorner. Having first seen their captive effectually fettered with cords, hand and foot, they took him up stairs, deposited him in an empty garret, double-locked the door, of which they intrusted the key to the safe

custody of the landlord, and then separated to make arrangements for giving as much eclat as possible to the grand ceremony of the succeeding Sunday.

Stubborn and stout-hearted as he generally was, Sir John could not avoid being stung with bitter vexation at this fearful reverse in his prospects, aggravated by the consciousness that it was solely attributable to his own fiery temper and ungovernable rashness. It was some alleviation of his former capture that it arose from an act of magnanimity, that ne had at least saved his friend by sacrificing himself; but in the present instance he had wantonly given himself over into the power of his enemies without the smallest necessity, without a single extenuating object or excuse; and unfortunately, in his present helpless state, pinioned till he could scarcely move a limb, he could not entertain a hope of his deliverance.

To add to his annoyances, he was prevented from sleeping by the pain of his fetters, such being the tightness of the ligature, that the flesh began to swell, and his sufferings became acute. In this dreary state of bodily and mental anguish, enduring much, and anticipating worse, he counted the clock of Steyning church, till six in the morning, when he heard a key rattling in the lock of his door, which was presently opened, and the landlord made his appearance, bringing some refreshment. His presence produced a strange compromise in the feelings of Sir John, his contempt and hatred of the individual being qualified by the necessity of requesting his assistance in loosening his bandages, a compound impression which found vent after the following fashion -"Hark ye, you Roundhead rogue, do prythee be a good fellow for once in your life, and untie these cords a bit; don't you see they are cutting my flesh? Twist them as you list to prevent my running away, but zooks! you crop-eared - I mean my good fellow, what need to torment me thus ?"

"Verily," said the landlord, "though thou art of the army of the Beast, thou shalt share in the tender mercies of the elect, who will spare thy flesh, that they may offer thee up whole as a sacrifice to the Lord."

"Ha!" exclaimed the baronet, breathing more freely when the ligatures were a little loosened - -"thank ye, thank ye, friend Righteous! Body o' me! I'm as much obliged to you as if you had hung yourself, like Alderman Hoyle. Now lookye, you canting, hypocritical-look ye, my good friend Lovegrace, I mean; if you have a mind to act like a man of sense and an honest fellow, by cutting these cursed ropes and suffering me to escape, the deuce a syllable will I reveal to the brethren, or to your wife, about the state of affairs between you and Rachel."

--

"Rachel !" exclaimed the landlord, his lips becoming livid, and his ferrety face turning to an ashy hue- -"what mean you? what have you to say against that virtuous handmaid, who is chaster than Susannah?" "What I have to say is against yourself," replied Sir John "and if you choose not to let me slip halter, which you may easily do without suspicion, I will proclaim to all the world that you are a fornicating rogue, of which I have abundant proof; reveal your sham gout; and moreover discover to your customers that you replenish you ale-casks with water."

For some minutes the landlord wore that downcast and staggered look which is peculiar to a detected knave, his confusion and guilt preventing any immediate reply; but at length he exclaimed, with an air of recovered confidence- -"In vain do you seek mischief as Benhadad did. Would you attack one of the brethren in the midst of the fold? Would you attempt to rival Benaiah, who went down and slew a lion in the pit? Even were your slanderer's tales sooth, who would believe them, coming from an attainted traitor, a malignant, an insulter of our chosen minister, a slaughterer of the lambs, and directed against an approved disciple of the pious Fear-the-Lord Goodenough, and an admitted brother of the saints!