After taking their supper in the common room of the hostelry, there was a stir outside, and three men, attired as Puritan preachers, entered the room.  Mine host received them with courtesy, but with none of the eager welcome usually displayed to guests; for these gentry, although feared—­for their power was very great at the time—­were by no means loved, and their orders at a hostelry were not likely to swell the purse of the host.  Stalking to an unoccupied table next to that at which Harry and his party were sitting, they took their seats and called for supper.

Harry made a sign to his companions to continue talking together, while he listened attentively to the conversation of the men behind him.  He gathered from their talk that they were commissioners proceeding from the Presbyterian Convention in London to discuss with that at Edinburgh upon the points upon which they could come to an agreement for a common basis of terms.  Their talk turned principally upon doctrinal questions, upon which Harry’s ignorance was entire and absolute; but he saw at once that it would do good service to the king if he could in some way prevent these men continuing upon their journey, and so for a time arrest the progress of the negotiations between the king’s enemies in England and Scotland, for at this time the preachers were the paramount authorities in England.  It was they who insisted upon terms, they who swayed the councils of the nation, and it was not until Cromwell, after overthrowing the king, overthrew the Parliament, which was for the main part composed of their creatures, that the power of the preachers came to an end.  It would, of course, have been easy for Harry and his friends to attack these men during their next day’s journey, but this would have involved the necessity of killing them—­from which he shrank—­for an assault upon three godly men traveling on the high business of the Convention to the Scottish capital would have caused such an outcry that Harry could not hope to continue on his way without the certainty of discovery and arrest.

Signing to his comrades to remain in their seats, he strolled off toward the port, and there entered a public house, which, by its aspect, was frequented by seafaring men.  It was a small room that he entered, and contained three or four fishermen, and one whom a certain superiority in dress betokened to be the captain of a vessel.  They were talking of the war, and of the probability of the Scottish army taking part in it.  The fishermen were all of the popular party; but the captain, who seemed a jovial fellow, shrugged his shoulders over the religious squabbles, and said that, for his part, he wanted nothing but peace.