"Tell Rachel, by using my military authority, I got Job to lie down in my place, while I went round with Dr. Antony. At first he wavered. But I said: 'The general is sharp on any of us who neglect our arms or powder. And the body has to be looked to as well as the powder.' Whereon he lay down in my cloak, and in a minute was beyond the reach of any rousing, short of a cannonade. "_N.B._--Two young Davenants fought well a few yards from me; scarcely more than lads. "God grant we gained yesterday a step towards peace." A fortnight after, another letter, dated:-- "_York, the_ 15_th July_.--York has surrendered. The North is ours. This moment returned from a thanksgiving in the minster. The grandest music of the organ scarce, I think, could have echoed more solemnly among the old roofs and arches than that psalm, sung by the thousands of rough soldiers' voices. King David was a soldier, and knew how to make such psalms as soldiers need. Nor do I think the old minster has often seen a congregation more serious and devout. If some on the Cavalier side had heard it, they could scarce have said afterwards, our Puritan religion lacked its solemnities. Our solemnities begin indeed within; but when the tide of devotion is high and deep enough, no music like that it makes in overflowing." To Roger, as to any one borne on the chariot of the sun, the whole world seemed full of light. To us, however, meanwhile in the Fens, things seemed verging more and more from twilight into night. Not much more than a month after the letter of Roger's concerning the surrender of York, came tidings which, it seemed to us, more than counterbalanced these advantages. The royal letter post, lately established on the great North Road between London and Edinburgh, and southward between London and Plymouth, had been interrupted during the war. Netherby lay in the line of one of the more recent branch-posts; and we missed at first the pleasant sound of the horn which the postman was commanded to blow four times every hour, besides at the posting-stations. At first Aunt Dorothy had rather rejoiced. She had been wont to say it was a grievous interference with the liberty of the subject, that we should be compelled to send all our letters by the hands of the king's messengers, instead of by any private carrier we chose. And, moreover, she deemed it highly derogatory to His Majesty to demean himself to take a few pence each letter for such services. But a few months of return to the old private method, with all its uncertainties and suspenses, made her receive the public posts again as a boon, when the Commonwealth government re-established them. It was from Dr. Antony, therefore, that we first heard the tidings of the Lord Essex's flight from Fowey, and the ruin of his whole army. This was not until November.