They woke him.
"Where am I?"
"With friends. Canst walk to our home; it is not far?"
"Angels from Heaven. Yes, I can walk—see."
But without their assistance he could never have reached the cave.
They gave him food; he took little, but drank eagerly.
"How did you come here?"
He told them of the plague at Byfield, and of the death of the Chaplain.
"Happy man!" said Meinhold; "he laid down his life for the sheep the Good Shepherd had committed to his care." And so may we, he thought.
That night the poor man grew worse; the dark livid hue overspread him. Our readers know the rest.