In all Paris he cannot
find a copy of Blaise Viginere _Des Chiffres_. "I had it in my library in
England, but at the plundering of my house I lost it with many other good
books. I have _laid out_ in all places for it." The words we have
underscored would be called a Yankeeism now. The house was Gatehurst, a
fine Elizabethan dwelling, still, or lately, standing. Digby made his
peace with Cromwell, and professes his readiness to spend his blood for
him. He kept well with both sides, and we are not surprised to find Hooke
saying that he hears no good of him from any.
The early colonists found it needful to bring over a few trained
soldiers, both as drillmasters and engineers. Underhill, Patrick, and
Gardner had served in the Low Countries, probably also Mason. As Paris
has been said to be not precisely the place for a deacon, so the camp of
the Prince of Orange could hardly have been the best training-school for
Puritans in practice, however it may have been for masters of casuistic
theology. The position of these rough warriors among a people like those
of the first emigration must have been a droll one. That of Captain
Underhill certainly was. In all our early history, there is no figure so
comic. Full of the pedantry of his profession and fond of noble phrases,
he is a kind of cross between Dugald Dalgetty and Ancient Pistol, with a
slight relish of the _miles gloriosus_.
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