Holdfast declareth, we are all but as pitch that defileth they who touch it."

"Alack, we are very pitch !" exclaimed Master Shakspeare, looking as doleful as if he were about to be hanged.

"As for my skill, mayhap it is something more than the ordinary," added the chirurgeon with some complacency. "I have studied my art but ill, lack I any knowledge in it. It be true enough I cannot recover one dead of the plague, or fit a bald man with a periwig without stuff for the making of it; yet in aught which can reasonably be done appertaining unto barbering or chirurgery, methinks I can do as well as the best in the land."

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Better, I will be bound for't," said the other.

"It pleaseth you to think so," replied Master Lather, looking in no way displeased with such an opinion. "And as for my learning, I have ever been diligent in the studying of books; and perchance, I shall be found as good at the making of verses, or the quoting of Latin, or other clerk-like accomplishments, as some of our chirurgeons who pretend to greater scholarship. My painstaking hath been constant, and there be no becoming learned without wonderful trouble. Indeed, Aristotle himself sayeth that the chiefest aids to wisdom are, Pallor et genæ pendulæ, oculorum ulcera, tremulæ manus,' the which rendered into the vulgar, is, late hours and early, thumbing the properest books, and discoursing with they who be more learned than yourself; the which I have done this forty year."

"I am well convinced of it," remarked Master Shakspeare as gravely as he could. "But the business upon which we come is of such moment as requireth your instant attention. Listen, I pray you, worthy Master Lather." The old barberchirurgeon was in a moment looking as attentive as any man could, whereupon the other proceeded. "We two, sick of the vanities of this most heathenish world, and long having scruples of conscience concerning of certain things belonging unto the faith as by law established, desire to enter into a more strict society, where we may be comforted by the hearing of some famous preacher, capable of ministering to our spiritual wants. We have heard of your being one of such a community as that we wish to enter into, and the manner in which you have been commended hath made us marvellously desirous to ask of you to render us your assistance in the hearing and having speech with such a preacher as you, in

your superior judgment, may think best qualified to do us the service we require."

“That will I and readily," quickly replied Master Lather. "When you came I was on the point of attending a meeting of the faithful, where, if you will now come with me, you shall hear Master Tribulation Holdfast, who be, according to my thinking, the very searchingest preacher that ever expounded text."

This was exactly what Master Shakspeare wanted; and presently the three were proceeding together under the guidance of the barber-chirurgeon, who all the way kept sounding of the praises of the person they were so intent upon seeing. It was a difficult thing for any who were not of that sect to get admission among a congregation of Puritans, as these being frequently oppressively used of the government, and contemptuously treated of the court, would retaliate with some disdain if they could; and this Master Shakspeare knowing, made him have recourse to stratagem. The anxiety and uneasiness of Master Francis had greatly increased. He was now about to see his father, of whom he had been kept in entire ignorance, and of whose affection he had been debarred for so long a time. From his earliest boyhood he had been of that affectionate nature which ever requireth some natural source upon which to pour out its sympathies. For his uncle he could have no feeling in common; his affection for Harry Daring though sincere was not powerful enough to satisfy him; nor was his young friend of such a disposition as could create, in him any kinder feeling. At one time his devotion to Joanna was of so fond and exclusive a kind as left no room in his heart for love of any other. When he discovered this was not reciprocal there was a void which all that he felt for Master Shakspeare and Sir Walter Raleigh could not fill. The shame that, to his sensitive nature, seemed to cling to him, made him despair that he should meet with any of a like disposition with his own. Indeed it was not probable he would; for, there was somewhat of an effeminate softness in it which no man that had not the fondness of a parent for him could regard him with; and though he had formed in his own imagination the most pleasurable pictures of fatherly regard, when he heard the character of this Holdfast, he felt the conviction that such a father he could neither love nor be loved by; and his heart again sunk within him. Now he listened attentively to all that was said by old Lather, and most

fervently hoped that Holdfast might have become as good a man as he was deemed excellent a preacher.

They arrived at last before an old house with projecting casements running all along, one above another, which was in Houndsditch, and the barber-chirurgeon leading the way, they presently entered a chamber of spacious dimensions filled with people. These were chiefly men, clad in formal cut suits of coarse material, and without ornament. They had usually stern forbidding visages, and famous grave-looking beards. Some women were there; but they were old and by no means comely. In the middle of the chamber standing upon a barrel with a book in his hand, was a tall man formally clad, and with a very absolute sanctified countenance. He was preaching with a monstrous fierce gesticulation, and with a loud voice that was not the more tunable for having of an audible nasal twang in it. Now he would threaten terribly, his dark fiery eyes flashing the very gloomiest glances, and his long bony arms waving about in the air in a wonderful awful manner; and then his congregation would groan, and sigh, and look exceeding moved; anon he would call them the vilest names he could lay his tongue to, and bid them repent of their sins quickly, or every one of them should suffer the horridest torment that ever was endured; and then there was amongst them the making of such solemn faces, and such turning up of their eyes to the ceiling as was quite pitiful to look upon.

Upon the entering of Master Shakspeare and his young friend they were regarded by such of the assembled puritans as could get sight of them, with the gloomiest scowling glances ever seen-mayhap taking them for some idle gallants who only came to make sport; but when that they had noticed Master Francis's pale and melancholy aspect, still looking to be infinitely uneasy, and turned from him to gaze on his companion, who had put on him as long a face as any there, they thought not they could have any such intention. Still some continued to watch them very suspiciously. Master Francis, as hath been said, was becoming monstrously uneasy. He had heard old Lather point out the preacher as Holdfast, and at the first glance he liked him not at all. His appearance and manner were too repulsive for him to antici-pate he should find in him that affection for which his heart yearned. At the conclusion of his sermon the preacher

made a powerful appeal to his auditors on behalf of certain persons he styled "the suffering saints," who were in fact, divers puritan divines who had been mulcted or imprisoned by the government; and with sundry famous arguments held forth the necessity of each contributing according to his means, towards the acquiring for them such assistance as their necessities demanded. Then descending from his elevation, he took his hat and went round with it among the congregation. Some put in it a groat, some a sixpence, some a shilling, and others what they could, and then went their way.

Master Francis trembled when Holdfast approached him. He felt some fear of he knew scarce what. He had listened and had observed attentively, and he fancied, from what he had noticed, that there could be no affection in one so severe as he seemed. Indeed, he began to doubt the other would even acknowledge him. Neither had Master Shakspeare been an inattentive spectator; but his scrutiny was assisted by a more perfect knowledge of character than was possessed by Master Francis. As the preacher came nearer, Master Shakspeare noticed his features more closely. From the impudent expression of the eyes, the extended nostril, and large mouth, he suspected him to be nothing better than an unreclaimed profligate. The look of sanctity imposed not on him. He saw that the countenance before him was one the comeliness whereof had been spoiled by riotous ill living. The skin was coarse, of a purplish hue on the cheeks, and had the wrinkles and the crowsfoot famously conspicuous. It was plain such a father would do no credit to his young friend; indeed, had not the latter seemed so confident of it, he should have doubted there was any relationship betwixt them. Notwithstanding of what he thought, he had made up his mind how he should act.

It so happened that Holdfast did not come to old Lather and his companions till nearly all of his congregation had taken their departures. Upon seeing of what he took to be two gallants, he looked upon them with a sort of sneer, yet presently put his hat before Master Shakspeare, who taking out his purse, dropped among the contributions of the others, a ryal of Henry the Eighth. At the sight of the gold, the yellow eyeballs of the Puritan did glisten again.

"Here is another for my friend," said Master Shakspeare, dropping a second into the hat, "and heartily do we both

wish the suffering saints out of the power of their tyrannical persecutors."

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"I thank you in their names-and the Lord thanketh you also," replied Holdfast, looking wonderfully gracious. "Verily, I took you to be of the ungodly, for the vanity of your apparelling did mislead me."

"Indeed, worthy sir, it hath misled you hugely," observed the barber-chirurgeon. “These be two very honourable gentlemen of my acquaintance, who, repenting of the blindness in which they have lived, are desirous of entering into our community, that they might profit by the discourses of such an absolute searcher of hearts as yourself; therefore have I brought them here—for is it not writ in Aristotle”

"Mind not the heathen," said the preacher, with a monstrous grave face, interrupting old Lather in his speech. "Speak ye of any written thing, let it be the word of the Lord: for therein lieth all comfortable knowledge, and all understanding worthy to be known of the faithful."

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"Could I and my friend have private speech with you, worthy sir," said Master Shakspeare to Holdfast. "I doubt not 'twould be to the wonderful comforting of our disturbed spirits; for what we have heard this day, so ably delivered as it was, hath come home to us. Your marvellous eloquence hath touched us mightily. We cannot help wishing to be of the flock of so truly admirable a shepherd."

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Verily, I am in the Lord's hands," replied the preacher, with his usual nasal twang, as he lifted up his eyes to the ceiling. "What I have is of His giving; what I do is of His performance."

"Should you bestow on us your invaluable counsel, you would not find us ungrateful for your pious office;" and here Master Shakspeare, as if by accident, jingled his purse, which the puritan knew to be well filled by the sound of it.

"Wait you but till I dismiss the congregation, with the Lord's help, I will give you whatever consolation you stand in need of" The preacher then went round to such as remained, and after the barber-chirurgeon had taken his leave of them, Master Shakspeare and his young friend were led into a little room adjoining the chamber used as a chapel, where there was a bottle of wine and a pasty on the table, as if waiting to be partaken of. Master Francis took a seat. He was in such a state of anxiety he could say nothing. He