He was inquiring much about Brian Walton, whose name had not been so much as heard of when Baillie was in London, and whose Polyglott seemed now to him the book of the age.

Baxter, on the other hand, was an Ishmaelite, a man to be put down.

All these matters, however, had been absorbed at length in Baillie's interest in Mr.
Sharp's mission.

He was to write to his old London friends, Rous, Calamy, and Ashe, urging them to help Mr.Sharp to the utmost, and he was to correspond with Sharp himself.

"I pray God help you and guide you; you had need of a long spoon [in supping with a certain personage]: trust no words nor faces, for all men are liars," is the memorable ending of the first letter that Sharp in London was to receive from Baillie.[1] [Footnote 1: Baillie, III.