The spiritual powers of evil, and the human persecutors of the Fifth Monarchy men, rose marshalled before him in the one great host that followed the dragon, mustering for the final conflict of Armageddon; and to his vivid enthusiasm there could be but a little time to wait before that conflict must end in the crowning victory of the saints, and the establishment on earth of the visible kingdom of Christ—the last and greatest of the monarchies of the world. He rode on, his head raised, his light hair floating back from his ecstatic face, riding, as he ever hoped it might be, to join the host of angelic horsemen, who might appear to him at any moment.
To Audrey, that night-ride seemed the strangest thing she had ever known. The silent, hazy landscape, the flood of golden moonlight, her own wild fears and resentments so suddenly stilled. It seemed to her as though the words she caught from time to time, half-chanted by her companion, were less strange and dreamlike than the events that were passing around her.
Silently Audrey led the way. Mile after mile they rode, now threading a cautious way through the dark aisles of the fir-woods, and then making better time on the delicate turf that bordered the waste of sand-hills to seaward.
"We must venture a little way on the road here,", said Audrey, at length. "I fear the Babingly brook is too much swollen by the rains for safe fording, and we must cross the bridge."
They turned on to the main road and reached the bridge, when a man suddenly sprang out from the bushes by the road, and barred their way. With a stifled cry Audrey turned her horse.
"All's well," cried the stranger, "'tis only I, Dick Harrison. I have waited here for you, thank Heaven, you are safe!" He stood between them, his hand on Mr. Rogers's saddlebow, and spoke rapidly. "The hue and cry is out after Mistress Perrient, and all the ways into Lynn are beset. I could not go out of the south gate without a scuffle; she must not try to enter. But I have a boat here, and if Mistress Perrient can endure a night on the water, 'twill be easy to board the Good Hope to-morrow morning, when she is safe out of Lynn harbour."
Mr. Rogers did not answer. Richard laid his hand on his knee.
"I have a boat here, good sir," he repeated. "We must not venture into Lynn for fear of the constables."
Mr. Rogers did not seem to hear. He still gazed away into the distance with the ecstatic expression that had illuminated his face during the silent ride; then, as he caught the last word, he started.
"Fear," he echoed, "what do we know of fear? is it not for the soldiers of the Most High to fear when the trumpet sounds?"