I tell
you 'tis a castle, man."
"Our Jeph lord of a castle?"
"Aye, even so. Twice as big as Elmwood Hall, if half were not in
ruins, and the other half the rats run over like peas out of a bag.
While as to the servants, there are dozens of them, mostly barefoot
and in rags, who will run at the least beck from the old mistress or
the young mistress, though they scowl at the master. But he is
taking order with them, and teaching them who is to be obeyed."
"Then our Jephthah is a great man?"
"You may say that--a bigger man than the squire at Elmwood, or at
Leigh I can tell you. Only I would give all that bare mountain and
bog, full of wild, Popish, red-haired kernes for twenty yards in a
tidy street at Bristol, with decent godly folk around me. Murdering
or being murdered, I have marvelled more than once whether the men of
Israel were as sick of it in Canaan as I was at Drogheda, but the cry
ever was, 'Be not slack in the work.' But I will bring you
Jephthah's letter. He could not write when he went off, but he could
not be a serjeant without, so we taught him--I and Corporal Faith-
Wins.
Pages:
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248