And so the war surged away to the Royalist West and Royalist North, until in all the West Country not a city was left to the Parliament but Gloucester; and in the North Country, not a city but Hull, which the Hothams had been baffled in an attempt to betray to the king; whilst in the counties between, Prince Rupert and the plunderers were having it much their own way. Very evil times we thought them. And many different reasons were assigned for the failure of the good cause. Aunt Dorothy feared it was a punishment for a licentious spirit of toleration to zealots and sectaries, and the sins of the Independents. The zealous preacher who came from Suffolk occasionally to expound at Job Forster's meeting, was sure it was carnal compromise lording it over God's heritage, and the sins of the Presbyterians. And Rachel believed it was the sins of us all, and of herself in particular, who had, she considered, been too much like Ananias and Sapphira, in that she had professed to give the whole price to God and then would fain have kept back the half, having indulged the deceitful hope that Job was so wounded as never to be able to go to the wars again. Placidia and Mr. Nicholls were much "exercised." Especially since the loss of the three parsonage cows, which were (by what Aunt Dorothy considered a very solemn warning to Placidia) swept off with my Father's by the plunderers from the meadow by the Mere. "There were two texts," said Placidia, "which had always seemed to her exceedingly hard to reconcile. One was, 'Godliness hath promise of the life which now is as well as of that which is to come.' And the other, 'Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth.' What could be done with texts so exceedingly difficult to reconcile as these?" To which Aunt Dorothy replied,-- "Give up trying to reconcile them at all, my dear. Let them fight, as frost and heat do, fire and water, sunshine and storm; and out of the strife come the flower and the fruit, spring-time and harvest, which shall never cease. Not that I see any difficulty in it. The promise is not meadows or cows, but grace and peace. The perplexity is over when you make up your mind that what you want is not to feel warm for a day or two, but to have things grow; not a few sunny hours, but the harvest."