'If you go near Bristol, beloved,' quoth
he,' search me out my brothers Steadfast and Benoni, and my sisters,
Patience and Jerusha, and greet them well from me, and bear witness
of me to them. They dwell, said he, in a lonely hut in the wood
side, and with them a fair little maiden, sprung of the evil and
idolatrous seed of the malignants, but whom their pious nurture may
yet bring to a knowledge of the truth,' and by that token, I knew
that it was the same." There was an odd little twinkle towards Emlyn
just then.
"And Stead, Jeph is an officer," said Patience, who was busied in
setting before the visitor on a little round table, the best ale,
bread, cheese, and butter that her hut afforded, together with an
onion, which, he declared, was "what his good grandfather, a valiant
man for the godly, had ever loved best."
"An officer! Aye is he. A captain of his Ironside troop, very like
to be Colonel ere long."
Stead was absolutely bewildered, and could not find speech, beyond an
awkward "Where?"
"Where was he when I last saw him? Charging down the main street of
Worcester, where the malignants and Charles Stewart made their last
stand.
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