Alas!' he went on, with a new suggestion from the image he had been using, 'if the beginning of strife be as the letting out of water, what shall be the end of that strife whose beginning is the letting out of blood ?' 'Think you then, good sir, that thus it has always been?
that such times of fierce ungodly tempest must ever follow upon seasons of peace and comfort ?--even as your cousin of holy memory, in his verses concerning the church militant, writes: "Thus also sin and darkness follow still The church and sun, with all their power and skill."' 'Truly it seems so.

But I thank God the days of my pilgrimage are nearly numbered.

To judge by the tokens the wise man gives us, the mourners are already going about my streets.

The almond-tree flourisheth at least.' He smiled as he spoke, laying his hand on his grey head.
'But think of those whom we must leave behind us, master Herbert.

How will it fare with them ?' said the lady in troubled tone, and glancing in the direction of the window.
In the window sat a girl, gazing from it with the look of a child who had uttered all her incantations, and could imagine no abatement in the steady rain-pour.
'We shall leave behind us strong hearts and sound heads too,' said Mr.
Herbert.