Bessie's father had been despatched with a party of convicts to the older settlement of Massachusetts; but as Quakers were persecuted almost as bitterly at Boston as in London, an agent had been sent by Sir William to buy the prisoner at the auction of the convicts, which would take place as soon as the vessel arrived. Westland was a more robust man than his friend the hatter, and, thanks to the care of Friends outside the prison, he had not suffered so severely as the London tradesman. The lax rules of the prison had given Westland an opportunity of preaching the gospel to the prisoners confined with him, and though many mocked and jeered at his warnings, a few were impressed with the earnestness of his faith; and this was so great a comfort to his ardent soul that he forgot the discomfort of his surroundings in the joy of knowing he had been the means of awakening some souls from the night and sleep of sin, to seek the Saviour who could give to them a new and better life. As it had been decreed that his wife must remain in Bridewell until he could earn the money to pay her passage to the plantations, it was at first feared that she would have to remain in prison for a much longer time than her husband; but although Sir William Penn was known to be an obstinate Quaker, many about the Court who had known his father were willing to do him a favour, in the hope of drawing him back to what they deemed was his rightful position in society; and by the interest of some of these it was at last arranged that Bessie's mother should be released when the party of Friends were ready to sail from Gravesend. Bessie was allowed to go and see her father just before he was taken from Newgate; and now to hear at last that her mother would be released to go with them to the new strange home across the seas was almost too much joy for the poor girl. "We shall see her, Dorothy! we shall see her! thee and me; and we shall not be afraid of people knowing we are Quakers. Verily, God hath been good in giving us such a friend as Sir William Penn, who is indeed our champion and protector." But Audrey was by no means so delighted as Bessie over the impending change. The two girls had learned to know and love each other by this time, for each had been drawn to the other by the mutual helpfulness that had kept business and household going during the long illness of Dame Drayton and the imprisonment of her husband. It had seemed impossible at first that pretty, fashionable Audrey Lowe, whose father lived by ministering at a steeple-house, and the stern, uncompromising Bessie Westland could ever be friends, in the closest sense of that word. But circumstances had thrown them so closely together the last few months, that they had learned to look below the surface they each so much disliked in the other, and there they could recognise the true spirit of Christ Jesus, who came not to be ministered unto, but to minister.