because he has something better with which he means to surprise me.”  This sanguine thought cheered me up greatly.  At luncheon he was as kind and happy as if he had neither done anything dishonourable, or had any intention of doing so; so that I felt quite sure something good was coming.  I began to wonder at intervals, “What part of the diocese I was to be sent to?—­Where is there a vacancy?” and so on.

The Bishop was as friendly to me as he used to be in other days.  After the repast, he summoned me to his study again.  “Now,” I thought, “I shall hear where I am to go;” but instead of this, he said that he was “much engaged, and must take leave of me.”

I was more than astonished at this, and said, “I can scarcely believe that you refuse to appoint me!”

“I do then, most positively.”

“But I have a copy of my letter to your lordship, and your answer.”

“Then you may urge your claim by law, if you please.”

“No, indeed, my lord, I do not think I will do that.”  And then, after a short pause, I said, “You have done for me what I could not dare do for myself, though I have often been tempted to do it.”

“And pray, what is that?” he inquired.

“To give up parochial ministration, that I may be free to preach wherever I am led.”

“Could you do that?”

“I could not do it conscientiously myself; but now that you have stripped me of harness, I will put on no more.”

The Bishop made his bow, and I made mine; and that was the end of our interview.  In my unconverted days I used to be an ardent and enthusiastic admirer of this man; his charges, his speeches, and especially his withering, sarcastic letters to Lord John Russell and others, who came under his tremendous lash, to my mind made him a great hero.  His straight forward manner also commanded my respect, for, generally speaking, I had found bishops very smooth and two-sided, or rather both-sided; but in his ease there was no mistake.

It used to be a proud time for me when this Bishop came into Cornwall, and I was permitted to accompany him, and to act as his chaplain at the consecration of a church or burial ground, or to attend him when he went to a Confirmation.  Sometimes I had the happy privilege of rowing him in a boat on the sea.  He seemed to take such an affectionate and intelligent interest in my parish and my church work.  He asked various questions about my neighbours, just as if he lived among them and knew all their circumstances.  He struck me as a wonderful man, and I was his champion upon all occasions in my unconverted days.  Notwithstanding this, he was too honest to his own views to favour me after my conversion.

On my return home without a license, I had but a poor account to give, and the future prospect looked very gloomy.

CHAPTER 26

Plymouth, 1855.