"The General wrote to the Generaless." "He wrote on the battle-field, the cries of the wounded and dying in his ears, all horror and confusion around him. He was giving orders about the arms and the artillery, and about the movement of the troops as he wrote. But he knew his wife and children were waiting in sore anxiety for news—and not expecting good news—and ’twas a miracle how he did write at all. No one else could have brought heart and hands to a pen." "I think Israel might have written." "I’ll be bound you do! It’s woman-like." "What do you think of the young Charles Stuart?" asked Jane. "It is said he has taken the Covenant, and is turned pious." "I think worse of him than of his father. He is an unprincipled malignant—a brazen villain, changing and chopping about without faith in God or man. Englishmen will have none of him—and the Scots can’t force him on them." "Dunbar settled that; eh, Doctor?" "I should say that Dunbar has done the job for all the Presbyterian tribe." "But oh, the suffering, Doctor!" said Mrs. Swaffham. "Think of that." "I do, Martha. But God’s will be done. Let them suffer. In spite of Cromwell’s entreaties and reasonings, they had taken in the Stuart to force him upon us as king—a king who at this very moment, has a popish army fighting for him in Ireland; who has Prince Rupert—red with the blood of Englishmen—at the head of ships stolen from us on a malignant account; who has French and Irish ships constantly ravaging our coasts, and who is every day issuing commissions to raise armies in the very heart of England to fight Englishmen. Treachery like this concerns all good people. Shall such a matchless, astonishing traitor indeed reign over us? If we were willing for it, we should be worthy of ten thousand deaths—could ten thousand deaths be endured. Now let me go to rest. I am weary and sleepy, and have won the right to sleep. Give me a verse to sleep on." Mrs. Swaffham answered at once, as if she had been pondering the words, "’He lifted up his face to heaven, and praised the king of heaven. And said, from Thee cometh victory, from Thee cometh wisdom, and Thine is the glory, and I am Thy servant.’" "Thank you, Martha; you have spoken well for me;" and with a smile he turned his beaming eyes on Jane, and she said confidently— "’Strive for the truth unto death, and the Lord shall fight for thee.’" "Amen, Jane! And as you have given me a word of Jesus, the son of Sirach, so will I give you both one, and you may ponder it in your hearts—’Many kings have sat down upon the ground, and one that was never thought of, hath worn the crown.’" Then Mrs. Swaffham put her hand on the Doctor’s arm to stay him, and she asked, "Do you remember the flag the women of Huntingdon and Ely gave to General Cromwell just before Naseby?" "I do. It was a great lion—the lion of England guarding the Cross of England. And your Israel made the speech. I am not likely to forget it."