'There are many who would give willing witness to his piety, and his painfulness in caring for their souls,' said Cuthbert; but they are all ignorant, and little capable of giving collective evidence, with two exceptions, and these I have secured. Robinson, and Clarke the churchwarden, will bear witness in his favour.'

'Now, then,' said Lucy, we will go to his prisonhouse. Surely we shall no longer be denied admittance?'

'I tried to see him before I set out for Laytonfield,' replied her brother. He was then before the council, and my purpose was too important to admit of delay. On my return I went again, but was not suffered an interview.'

And must I still endure this fearful suspense?' said Lucy, pressing her hand on her aching brow. • Is there no key that will draw those bolts—no bribe that will turn the jailor's hardened heart?'

'I have gained a friend, dear Lucy,' said Cuthbert, whose interest will avail us much in this matter. Mr. Travers, who came up with me to London, has some interest with the jailor, and has promised to use it in our favour. He will be here with us in one hour, and will go with us, Lucy.'

Lucy's joy at the thought of once more seeing her husband, of knowing what he endured, of ministering comfort to his woe, made her for a time forget the long after-separation that must ensue. And while she glorified her God, who sent her this mercy, she invoked blessings on the head of him who had offered to conduct her to the dungeon that contained Mark Wentworth.

Cuthbert did not pause to consider what influence Travers, a Puritan, wearing openly the habits of that

party, could possibly have over their harsh jailor. He took Lucy to the Fleet. Their first application met with an abrupt and insolent refusal; and they were turning hopelessly away, when Travers stepped forward, and whispering something in the jailor's ear, gained immediate admittance for himself and his friends. They followed through one dark passage after another, without uttering a word; and as each heavy bolt, when it had yielded to the key, was returned to its former position, Lucy's heart again sank within her. The power of kings and rulers seemed almost omnipotent.

At length the jailor unlocked the door of an apartment, whose gloomy light scarcely served to show the scene of hopeless misery upon which it fell. This apartment contained several prisoners, all brought thither upon some charge of disaffection to the government or the established church. As the door was cautiously opened, one of the prisoners, who appeared hardly able to walk, crawled towards it, and bent his eyes upon the strangers, with that look of close inspection with which a person whose sight is well nigh gone, endeavours to scrutinize any object that excites his interest. He was a man of low stature, and slightly made. His countenance had in it something strange and even fearful. Dark lines, or rather deep scars, appeared on each side of his nose, and both his cheeks were furrowed in the same manner.

'We bring you news from the outer world, Dr. Leighton,' said the jailor with a coarse laugh. The daughter of Heth" holdeth a masque to-night, and four hundred of the prophets of Baal will eat their meat at Jezebel's table, while the godly are still fast bound in fetters and iron.'

'Nay!' said Travers, sit not thou in the seat of the

scorner, neither mock at the calamities of the just upright man, for the day of vengeance is at hand, and the righteous shall yet wash his footsteps in the blood of the ungodly.'

Lucy looked earnestly at the speaker. Her eyes had glanced from face to face, in a vain search for her husband. When she found he was not in the cell, she concluded the jailor was wantonly trifling with her feelings, and she determined not to excite his cruelty by any appearance of impatience. She heard his jests with sorrow and disgust; but the words of the bold Puritan with wonder. She looked earnestly at him, for she had, in her eagerness and anxiety, scarcely noticed him before; now she could just discern a curl on his lip—a kind of smile which formed strange contrast with his words.

The jailor did not notice the rebuke that Travers so fearlessly administered; but Dr. Leighton, whose too fiery spirit had been subdued by Divine grace, sanctifying bitter affliction, replied, Let him alone, and let him mock, for the Lord hath bidden him. It may be that the Lord will look upon mine affliction, and that the Lord will requite me good for his mocking this day.'

While the jailor still lingered to answer Leighton's meek reply with some profane jest, Cuthbert and Lucy found painful leisure to observe the other prisoners who occupied this gloomy room. One man was pacing up and down his narrow bounds with short and irregular steps, according as his mind was agitated by the conflicting passions of impatience and despair. Sometimes he murmured a few words of prayer which seemed to give him passing relief. "Have mercy on me, O Lord!" he said, "for I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me." He stopped again, but presently

said in a low tone, "Let there be none to extend mercy unto him. Let his days be few, and let another take his office. Because that he remembered not to show mercy, but persecuted the poor and needy man that he might even slay the broken in heart."

Cuthbert stepped towards him, and tried to speak of comfort and of hope.

'Ay,' replied the poor man, but "hope deferred maketh the heart sick," and yet I know the day of vengeance will come, for their judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.'

'I can read the words of better cheer,' said another man, who was standing in an erect posture, so as to allow the few rays of light that entered through the small high window, or rather aperture in the wall, to fall on the volume which he held in his hand, 'I was even now reading of the "city that hath no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God doth lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof; and the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it, and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it."

'A blessed promise indeed,' said the other, and the time of its fulfilling is nigh at hand. Yet a little while and the saints shall possess the kingdom. They shall set their feet on the necks of kings and rule the nations with a rod of iron. They shall break them in pieces like a potter's vessel.'

'Thou art wrong, James Foster,' said the man who held the Bible in his hand; thou art very wrong thus to turn the sincere milk of the word into bitter gall, and to nourish thine own revenge with that which should fill thee with thoughts of peace and charity.

Our Lord says, "Love your enemies: pray for them which persecute you." For eight long years my prayer hath been, “May our God turn the heart of Archbishop Land!"

Eight years!' said Cuthbert Camden. ‹ Have you been in this miserable place for eight years?'

* I was brought hither,' replied the man, ‘a few days before the dreadful sentence was executed upon Dr. Leighton. My cross,' he continued, with a shudder, • has been light indeed, compared with that which was laid upon his shoulder. When the first day's torture was over, and the foreboding of a second striking terror into his heart, he was led in sick and bleeding, his back torn with the whips, and '—

Think of Calvary, Gordon,' interrupted Dr. Leighton, and dwell not upon my far lighter sufferings.'

Such thoughts,' replied Gordon, will give strength in the darkest hour. But,' he added, addressing Camden, 'when he was thus led in, torn and lacerated, those who should have dressed his wounds and tended his sick bed could find no admittance here. He had none to soothe.'

Lucy grasped her brother's arm with a convulsive grasp, but Dr. Leighton answered calmly, 'Say not so, Gordon. Had I not thee, my brother, to sit beside my pallet the livelong night, denying thyself for my sake, the poor portion of rest which a prison can afford? And wert thou not by me when they came for me again, to whisper, "Fear not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed, for I am thy God ?”'

The jailor, who had been engaged in a side conversation with Travers, suddenly acknowledged his mistake in bringing Camden and his sister to this part of the prison. I had forgotten,' he said, 'that Master Went