and he told him plainly that he liked not this going to feast in the
high places with the uncircumcised in heart, and looked on the whole
conviviality only as a making-merry in the house of Tirzah.

Upon receiving this rebuke from his pastor, Bridgenorth began to
suspect he might have been partly wrong in the readiness which, in his
first ardour of gratitude, he had shown to enter into intimate
intercourse with the Castle of Martindale; but he was too proud to
avow this to the preacher, and it was not till after a considerable
debate betwixt them, that it was mutually agreed their presence at the
entertainment should depend upon the condition, that no healths or
pledges should be given in their presence. Bridgenorth, therefore, as
the delegate and representative of his party, was bound to stand firm
against all entreaty, and the lady became greatly embarrassed. She now
regretted sincerely that her well-intended invitation had ever been
given, for she foresaw that its rejection was to awaken all former
subjects of quarrel, and perhaps to lead to new violences amongst
people who had not many years since been engaged in civil war. To
yield up the disputed point to the Presbyterians, would have been to
offend the Cavalier party, and Sir Geoffrey in particular, in the most
mortal degree; for they made it as firm a point of honour to give
healths, and compel others to pledge them, as the Puritans made it a
deep article of religion to refuse both. At length the lady changed
the discourse, introduced that of Major Bridgenorth's child, caused it
to be sent for, and put into his arms. The mother's stratagem took
effect; for, though the parliamentary major stood firm, the father, as
in the case of the Governor of Tilbury, was softened, and he agreed
that his friends should accept a compromise. This was, that the major
himself, the reverend divine, and such of their friends as held strict
Puritan tenets, should form a separate party in the Large Parlour,