of his old friend Percival Vere, whom his loving friendship and society greatly cheered in the labours and anxieties of his now somewhat turbulent parish, and with whom he was wont to take "sweet counsel" daily when his work was done, becoming himself too a member of that "League of the Holy Cross," which met week by week for prayer in the church on the hillside, and under Percival's direction laboured bravely, in spite of ridicule and obloquy, in the cause of temperance and sobriety throughout the neighbourhood. A coffee-house, built by Lady Shanno close upon the riverside, became a frequent resort of many who had hitherto spent night after night at the village tavern or the inn at the cross-roads, and within its pleasant walls the sweet sounds of her wondrous harp strings, or of her own beautiful voice, might be often heard, ringing out into the still evening air, while lectures on the nature and evils of strong drink were made as interesting to the listeners as the learning and eloquence of Jeremy or Percival could make them, and were week by week thronged with eager men and women. At such gatherings the introduction of politics was rigorously excluded, such topics receiving during every other night in the week a share of attention, both at home and in the open street, which was not conducive to the peace of the parish. For in proportion to the zeal of the king's humble followers in the wild Welsh hamlets was the hatred and fanaticism of those who sided with his enemies or vaunted an independence their little country was powerless to maintain, so that party strife reigned supreme over hill and dale, and often in the hollows of the dark woods and lonely copses by the riverside there lurked wild spirits thirsting for vengeance on their foes, and in knowledge of whom Primrose often trembled for the safety of her faithful knight, who, intent upon his mission, passed continually on errands of love and mercy by night as well as by day along the unfrequented byways and over the wild hills, and was in frequent peril of rude attack and insult, if not of bodily injury from those who both in religious and civil matters opposed his teachings.