held him to it; but before I wind up mine own story I will relate that
of my sister; for our lives, that have run so long in one channel, are
divided now, since Althea sailed not with us to England; and I will show
the reason presently.

That imagination which Harry had once entertained of Andrew's passing
into Holland and being safe there as an exile proved to be no impossible
device, in spite of the war between the English and the Dutch. For while
we still lay at Calais in the _Marie-Royale_ (I must ever admire her
captain's courage in taking us poor fugitives on board, even though
Harry was warrant for our soundness), there came letters from certain
Friends called Derricks, of the Dutch nation. They had heard of Andrew's
strange escape from prison, I wot not by what means; for the Friends
have their own ways of learning news of one another. These good people
willed him to go make his home under their roof in Amsterdam; and he was
very fain to seek that shelter, being exceedingly weary in spirit, as
one half spent with toil and grief; only two things held him back. The
one was his love for our dear and cruel country England, which made him
shrink from dwelling in a land at enmity with her; and the other was my
sister. Now the first scruple Harry overcame thus.

'You needs must dwell in some foreign land,' he said, 'for England is
altogether unsafe for you. Should you choose France, as Captain Maret
would have you, you choose a land chiefly Papist, and now full of
oppression; and my life on it, there will be war between France and
England this very winter,' a saying which proved too true. 'So the
balance must dip in favour of Holland, a Protestant country, where you
shall live under just laws and among faithful friends who believe as you
do. Is not this worth weighing, brother?' and Andrew said, 'It is,' but
yet he hesitated; and I needed not the sight of his questioning look at