So, by the good hand of my God upon me, came I safe through the reign of Queen _Mary_; and when Queen _Elizabeth_ came in (whom God long preserve, unto the comfort of His Church and the welfare of _England_!) had I not much ado to win back my lands and goods. Truth to tell, I gat not all back, but what I lost was a cheap bargain where life lay in the other scale. And enough is as good as a feast, any day. So here lie I now at anchor, becalmed on the high seas. (If that emblem hang not together, _Ned_ must amend it when he cometh unto it.) The day is neither bright nor dark, but it is a day known to the Lord, and I have faith to believe that at eventide it shall be light. I can trust and wait. (_In Edith's handwriting_.) MINSTER LOVEL MANOR HOUSE, AUGUST THE XXVIII, MDXCI [1591]. When I come, this morrow, to search for my Diurnal Book, the which for aught I knew I had brought with me from home, what should I find but our old Chronicle, which I must have catched up in mistake for the same? And looking therein, I was enticed to read divers pages, and then I fell a-thinking that as it had so happed, it might be well, seeing a space was yet left, that I should set down for the childre, whose it shall some day be, what had come to pass since. They were the pages Aunt _Joyce_ writ that I read: and seeing that of them therein named, two have reached Home already, and the rest of us be eleven years further on the journey, it shall doubtless make the story more completer to add these lines. _Father_, and _Mother_, and Aunt _Joyce_, be all yet alive; the Lord be heartily thanked therefor! But _Father's_ hair is now of the hue of the snow, though _Mother_ hath scantly any silver amongst the gold; and Aunt _Joyce_ well-nigh matcheth _Father_. _Hal_ and _Anstace_ be as they were, with more childre round them. _Robin_ and _Milisent_ dwell at _Mere Lea_, with a goodly parcel belike; and _Helen_ (that Aunt _Joyce_ counted should be an old maid) is wife unto _Dudley Murthwaite_, and dwelleth by _Skiddaw Force_. _Wat_ is at _Kendal_, grown a good man and wise, more like to _Father_ than ever we dared hope: but his wife is not _Gillian Armstrong_, nor any of the maids of this part, but _Frances Radcliffe_, niece to my Lord _Dilston_ that was, and cousin unto Mistress _Jane_ and Mistress _Cicely_. They have four boys and three maids: but _Nell_ hath only one daughter, that is named _Lettice_ for _Mother_.