This letter arrived, I say, after the departure of Robin with his company of village lads. When Mr. Boscorel had read it slowly and twice over, so as to lose no point of the contents, he sat and pondered awhile. Then he arose, and with troubled face he sought Sir Christopher, to whom he read it through. Then he waited for Sir Christopher to speak. 'The boy writes,' said his Honour, after a while, 'according to his lights. He repeats the things he hears said by his boon companions. Nay, more, he believes them. Why, it is easy for them to swear loyalty and to declare in their cups where the affections of the people are placed.' 'Sir Christopher, what is done cannot be undone. The boys are gone--alas!--but you still remain. Take heed for a space what you say as well as what you do.' 'How should they know the temper of the country?' Sir Christopher went on, regardless. 'What doth the foul-mouthed profligate Sir George Jeffreys know concerning sober and godly people? These are not noisy Templars; they are not profligates of the Court; they are not haunters of tavern and pot-house; they are not those who frequent the play-house. Judge Jeffreys knows none such. They are lovers of the Word of God; they wish to worship after their fashion; they hate the Pope and all his works. Let us hear what these men say upon the matter.' 'Nay,' said Mr. Boscorel; 'I care not greatly what they say. But would to God the boys were safe returned.' 'Benjamin means well,' Sir Christopher went on. 'I take this warning kindly; he means well. It pleases me that in the midst of the work and the feasting, which he loves, he thinks upon us. Tell him, son-in-law, that I thank him for his letter. It shows that he hath preserved a good heart.' 'As for his good heart'--Mr. Boscorel stroked his nose with his forefinger--'so long as Benjamin gets what he wants--which is Benjamin's mess, and five times the mess of any other--there is no doubt of his good heart.' 'Worse things than these,' said Sir Christopher, 'were said of us when the civil wars began. The King's troops would ride us down; the country would not join us; those of us who were not shot or cut down in the field would be afterwards hanged, drawn, and quartered. Yet we drove the King from his throne.' 'And then another King came back again. So we go up, and so we go down. But about this expedition and about these boys my mind misgives me.'