And while the war waged ever more fiercely, and England was convulsed with a struggle hitherto unknown, the young chaplain fought a gallant fight in his troubled parish, and was the innocent cause of almost as much discussion in the neighbourhood as was the king himself; for Master Jones, finding that he could make no headway against the powerful eloquence of the new vicar, nor stem the tide of popular opinion in his favour, stirred up continual strife against him among his own few devoted adherents, and threatened to burn, plunder, and destroy on the first opportunity the church on the hillside, where a new offence in the shape of a beautiful stained window, given by the earl to his wife's memory, together with some other fresh adornments added to the hitherto plain little building, served as fuel to the fire of Puritanical opposition. Not least among these standing offences was the beautiful organ presented by Lady Shanno, and played Sunday after Sunday by her own hand, despite the din which often throughout a great part of the service was wont to be made outside the walls by certain youths, who with pipe and tabor strove, with the authority of Master Jones, to drown the Popish sounds within. Moreover, it was not in the hamlet alone that the worthy preacher's ears were set a-tingling with jealousy, but that go where he might over hill and dale, whether to sell his wares on a week-day or to discourse on the Sabbath upon his favourite text--"Put not your trust in princes"--he ever found that the fame of Lord Bryn Afon's chaplain had already eclipsed his own; for Master Vere, in the enthusiasm of his crusade against the frightful intemperance reigning in the country villages, lost no opportunity of preaching and lecturing against this crying evil, whether in the open air at fairs, or in the pulpits of such among his brother clergy who would countenance his new doctrines. And in the town of Caer Cynau he gained no small notoriety by a certain course of lectures there delivered upon the "Testimony of the renowned Master Shakespeare upon the evils of strong drink," wherein his masterly learning and acquaintance with the works of the great poet and also his marvellous eloquence drew men and women from far and wide to hear him, and by means of which not a few of his brother clergy were brought to look more closely into a matter as yet but little considered by them. And although there were perhaps but few among them who did not regard him as a mad enthusiast, yet so powerful were his words, and so irresistible the sweetness of his voice and the purity of his countenance, that all were fain to love him heartily, and to think upon his discourses when his presence was withdrawn from them as upon the words of some prophet of God. And the chaplain, knowing that "one man must sow and another reap," was content to deliver his message, leaving others to see its results; but that results would surely follow he doubted not