heard, and asked for a statement of his affairs. Mr. Wesley was able to explain all satisfactorily, and, after detailing the falsehoods fabricated and spread by his opponents, adds:

My debts are about £300, which I have contracted by a series of misfortunes not unknown to your Grace. The falling of my parsonage barn, before I had recovered the taking my living; the burning great part of my dwelling-house about two years since, and all my flax last winter; the fall of my income nearly one half by the low price of grain; the almost entire failure of my flax this year, which used to be the better half of my revenue; with my numerous family; and the taking this regiment from me, which I had obtained with so much expense and trouble : have at last crushed me, though I struggled as long as I was able. Yet I hope to rise again, as I have always done when at the lowest; and I think I cannot be much lower now."

How Mrs. Wesley and the family fared at home, he tells in a letter written on the 12th of September:Concerning the stabbing my cows in the night since I came hither, but a few weeks ago; and endeavouring thereby to starve my forlorn family in my absence, my cows being all dried by it, which was their chief subsistence; though, I hope, they had not the power to kill any of them outright.

"They found out a good expedient, after it was done, to turn it off, and divert the cry of the world against them; and it was to spread a report that my own brawn (boar) did this mischief, though at first they said my cows ran against a scythe and wounded themselves.

"As for the brawn, I think any impartial jury would

bring him in not guilty on hearing the evidence. There were three cows all wounded at the same time, one of them in three places; the biggest was a flesh wound, not slanting but directly in towards the heart, which it only missed by glancing outwards on the ribs. It was nine inches deep, whereas the brawn's tusks were hardly two inches long. All conclude that the work was done with a sword by the breadth and shape of the orifice. The same night the iron latch of my door was turned off, and the wood hacked in order to shoot back the lock, which nobody will think was with an intention to rob my family. My house-dog, who made a huge noise within doors, was sufficiently punished for his want of politics and moderation, for the next day but one his leg was almost chopped off by an unknown hand. 'Tis not everyone could bear these things; but, I bless God, my wife is less concerned with suffering them than I am in the writing, or than I believe your Grace will be in reading them. She is not what she is represented, any more than me. I believe it was this foul beast of a worse than Erymanthean boar, already mentioned, who fired my flax by rubbing his tusks against the wall; but that was no great matter, since it is now reported I had but five pounds loss."

Whether the Archbishop of York went to Epworth to see the state of affairs for himself, or whether Mrs. Wesley met him at Lincoln or elsewhere, during her husband's imprisonment, is not known, but certain it is that they had an interview, at which, among other questions, he asked, "Tell me, Mrs. Wesley, whether you ever really wanted bread?" "My Lord," said she, "I will freely own to your Grace that, strictly speaking, I never did want bread.

But then I had

so much care to get it before it was eat, and to pay for it after, as has often made it very unpleasant to me. And, I think, to have bread on such terms is the next degree of wretchedness to having none at all.” "You are certainly right," replied the Archbishop, who the next day gave the much-tried rector's wife a handsome present in money.

When Mr. Wesley had been in prison about three months, some of his clerical neighbours and some of his political friends assisted him by paying off about half his debts, and arranging for the liquidation of others. The joyful intelligence speedily produced a very grateful letter, in which he told the Archbishop what had occurred, and mentioned another touching manifestation of his wife's devotion :

"MY LORD,

"Lincoln Castle, Sept. 17th, 1705.

"I am so full of God's mercies that neither my eyes nor heart can hold them. When I came hither my stock was but little above ten shillings, and my wife's at home scarce so much. She soon sent me her rings, because she had nothing else to relieve me with; but I returned them, and God soon provided for me. The most of those who have been my benefactors keep themselves concealed. But they are all known to Him who first put it into their hearts to show me so much kindness; and I beg your Grace to assist me to praise God for it, and to pray for His blessing upon them.

"This day I have received a letter from Mr. Hoar, that he has paid ninety-five pounds which he has received from me. He adds that a very great man has just sent him thirty pounds more'; he mentions not his name, though surely it must be my patron.

I find I walk a deal lighter, and hope I shall sleep better now these sums are paid, which will make almost half my debts. I am a bad beggar, and worse at returning formal thanks, but I can pray heartily for my benefactors; and I hope I shall do it while I live, and so long beg to be esteemed your Grace's most obliged and thankful, humble servant,

“SAM. WESLEY.”

Shortly after this, Mr. Wesley was released and returned home, where he lived with a lighter heart in the bosom of his family, and engaged in a voluminous correspondence with his eldest son at Westminster School.

59

CHAPTER VII.

MATERNAL SOLICITUDE.

Or the next five or six months of Mrs. Wesley's life nothing is recorded; so they were probably passed in as much quietude and comfort as she had ever known. In May she wrote a letter to her eldest son, which shows that what we now call teetotalism was not among the austere virtues practised either in her own circle or that in which her boy lived.

"DEAR SAMMY,

"Epworth, May 22nd, 1706. "You cannot imagine how much your letter pleased me wherein you tell me of your fear lest you should offend God; though, if you state the case truly, I hope there is no danger of doing it in the matter you speak of.

"Proper drunkenness does, I think, certainly consist in drinking such a quantity of strong liquor as will intoxicate, and render the person incapable of using his reason with that strength and freedom as he can at other times. Now there are those that, by habitually drinking a great deal of such liquors, can hardly ever be guilty of proper drunkenness, because