San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1924-03-08

| Temptation urged him now, nourished
not only by the circumstance that in
rebellion lay his last nope of escap
ing starvation, but also by hot resent
ment against an inclement and un-
just government that drove able sol.
diers such as himself into the ken
nels, whilst befriending the worthless
minions who pandered to the prof,
| ligacy of worthless prince. Vice, he
told himself, was the only passport 10
service in this England of the restored
| Stuarts. Tucker and Rathbone were
right. At least what they did was
justified and hallowed by the coun-
trys need of salvation from the moral
leprosy that was fastening itself upon
IT, disease more devastating and
deadly than this plague upon which
the republicans counted to arouse the
nation to sense of its position.
He counted the cost of failure; but
he counted it derisively. His life
would be claimed. That was the stake
he set upon the board. But, consid.
ering that it was the only stake re.
naming him, why hesitate? What,
after all, was this life of his worth
that he should be tender of setting il
upon last throw with Fortune !?
Fortune favors boldness. Perhaps In
the past he had not been bold enough.
Deep in his musings he had reached
st. Clement Danes, when he was
abruptly aroused by a voice, harsh
and warnlngly commanding.
Keep your distance, sir."
Checking, he looked around to the
right, whence the order came.
He beheld man with a pike, who
stood before padlocked door that
was smeared with a red cross a foot
in length, above which also in red was
heavily daubed the legend: Lord
Have Mercy Upon U.s."
Taken thus by surprise, the colonel
shuddered as at the contact of some
thing unclean and horrible. Hastily he
stepped out into the middle of the I'M
paved street, and, pausing there mo-
ment, glanced up at the closed shut
tiers of the infected house. 1t was the
first that he had seen; for although
he had come this way a week ago,
when the plague was already active in
the neighborhood, yet it was then con-
fined to Butchers Row on the north
side of the church and to the mean
'tANSto tiOt iSSuNu LIZ lluu IL
thus upon the main road between the
city and Whitehall was to be rendered
conscious of its spread.
And, as he now pursued his way with
instinctively Quickened steps, he found
his thoughts thrust more closely than
ever upon the uses which the revolu
tionaries could make of this dread
pestilence. Much brooding in his dis
turbed state of mind distorted his
mental Vision, so that he came pres
entity to adopt the view that this
plague was visitation from Heaven
upon a city abandoned to ungodliness. |
Heaven, it followed, must be on the
side of those who labored to effect a |
purifying change.
The end of it was that. as he toiled
up Ludgate Hill toward Paul's, Ais |
resolve was taken. That evening hel
would seek Tucker and throw in his |
lot with the republicans.
Coming into Paurs Yard he found
a considerable crowd assembled be-
fore the western door of the Cattle
dral. 1t was composed of people of
all degrees; merchants, shOpkeepers,
prentices, horseboys, scavengers. |
rogues from the alleys that lay be- |
hind the Old Change. oilers and |
sharpers from Pauls Walk, with a |
sprinkling of women, of town-gal
lants, and of soldiers. And there, |
upon the steps of the portico. stood |
the magnet that had drawn them in |
the shape of that black crow of a
Jack Presbyter preaching the City's |
doom. And his text-recurring like
the refrain of song-was ever the
same:
"Ye have defiled your sanctuaries
by the multitude of your iniquities,
by the inicuity of your traffic"
And yet, from between the Corin-
THAN pillars which served him for
his background, had been swept away |
the milliners' shops that had stood |
there during the Commonwealth.
Whether some thought of this an |
the minds Of his audience rendered |
his words humorously inapt, or
it was merely that a spirit
Of irresponsible ribaldry was infused
into the crowd by a crowd of young
loud derision greeted the
preachers uttcrance. mistaken by ]