scriptural, Damon and Pythias--eh?' These papers, then, are from the
faithful abroad, the exiles in Holland, ye understand, who are thinking
of making a move and of coming over to see King James in his own country
with their swords strapped on their thighs. The letters are to those
from whom they expect sympathy, and notify when and where they will make
a landing. Now, my dear lad, you will perceive that instead of my being
in your power, you are so completely in mine that it needs but a word
from me to destroy your whole family. Decimus Saxon is staunch, though,
and that word shall never be spoken.'

'If all this he true,' said I, 'and if your mission is indeed as you
have said, why did you even now propose to make for France?'

'Aptly asked, and yet the answer is clear enough,' he replied; 'sweet
and ingenuous as are your faces, I could not read upon them that ye
would prove to be Whigs and friends of the good old cause. Ye might
have taken me to where excisemen or others would have wanted to pry and
peep, and so endangered my commission. Better a voyage to France in an
open boat than that.'

'I will take you to my father,' said I, after a few moments' thought.
'You can deliver your letter and make good your story to him. If you
are indeed a true man, you will meet with a warm welcome; but should you
prove, as I shrewdly suspect, to be a rogue, you need expect no mercy.'

'Bless the youngster! he speaks like the Lord High Chancellor of
England! What is it the old man says?

"He could not ope
His mouth, but out there fell a trope."