to see him there. "Oh," he cried, "I fear there is no mercy--the
sentence is surely gone forth against me, 'Cut him down! cut him down!'"
And then the poor man howled aloud in his distress. The people prayed
for him with shouts of thanksgiving, while he threw himself about in
agony of mind, and made a great noise, which only drew still louder
acclamations from the people. In the midst of this tremendous din he
found peace, and rejoiced with the others in unmistakable accents, and
as loud as the loudest. Evidently he was not ashamed or afraid of
excitement and noise now.

While he was thus engaged I went round to his house to see his wife, and
tell her the news. I found her sitting on the stairs in profound dismay,
as if some dreadful calamity had happened. She was literally dumb with
fear and astonishment. When she could speak, she said, "What will happen
to him now? Will he die? What will become of us?" When I assured her
that her husband was only just beginning to live, she said, "Must we be
Dissenters now? Oh, what will become of us?" Her sister, who was staying
with her, became very angry at hearing of the master's conversion.
Finding that I could not do much with these two, I left them, and
returned to the schoolroom, where the people were even more uproarious
and happy than before; several others having also found pardon and
peace.

The Sunday after, the master was seen moving out of church as quickly as
he could; and when he reached the churchyard he was observed to run, and
then leap over a wall, and next over a hedge into a field. They could
not hear him, but he was shouting all the time as well as running. He
afterwards said that the Prayer-book was full of meaning; it was like a
new book to him; and that if he had stayed in church, he should have
disturbed the whole congregation. He became a very earnest Christian,