"Your son is alive and well," were his first words. "He has been all
through the siege of Derry, and has behaved like a hero."
"The Lord be praised!" Jabez said, while his wife burst into tears of
relief, for she had gone through terrible anxiety during the long weeks
that Derry had been suffering from starvation.
"But how do you know, Master Walter?" Jabez asked. "Seeing that you were
on the side of the besiegers, how could you tell what was passing on the
inside of the walls? How do you know John is alive?"
"Because I saw him first, a month before the end of the siege, and
because he came regularly afterwards, to fetch away some provisions which
I had placed for him."
And Walter then gave a full account of John's visit to the camp, in
search of food for the children who were sheltered in the tanner's house.
"That is just like John," his mother said. "He was ever thoughtful for
others. I am more pleased, a hundred times, that he should have so risked
his life to obtain food for the little ones, than if he had taken part in
the fighting and proved himself a very champion of Derry."
Parliament had met on the 7th of May. The session had been opened by a
speech from the throne, in which the king commended the loyalty of his
Irish subjects, declared his intention to make no difference between
Catholics and Protestants, and that loyalty and good conduct should be
the only passport to his favour.
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