Arthur Conan Doyle

“ Through this wild scene, made more striking by the ruddy flickering glare of the camp-fires, I picked my way with a weight at my heart, for I felt how vain it must be to hope for success where such division reigned, Saxon looked on, however, with glistening eyes, and rubbed his hands with satisfaction.
'The leaven is working,' quoth he. 'Something will come of all this ferment.'
'I see not what can come of it save disorder and weakness,' I answered.
'Good soldiers will come of it, lad,' said he. 'They are all sharpening themselves, each after his own fashion, on the whetstone of religion. ”

“ You say that Beaufort gave you nought in writing?'
'Not a word, my lord,' I replied.
'And his private message was that he wished us well, and would join us if we were in his country?'
'That was the effect, my lord.'
'Yet in his council, as I understand, he did utter bitter things against us, putting affronts upon the King, and making light of his just claims upon the fealty of his nobility?'
'He did,' I answered.
'He would fain stand upon both sides of the hedge at once,' said King Monmouth. 'Such a man is very like to find himself on neither side, but in the very heart of the briars. ”

“ I tell you, I would rather see them thus employed than at their drill, for all their wrangling and jangling.'
'But how of this split in the council?' I asked.
'Ah, that is indeed a graver matter. All creeds may be welded together, but the Puritan and the scoffer are like oil and water. Yet the Puritan is the oil, for he will be ever atop. These courtiers do but stand for themselves, while the others are backed up by the pith and marrow of the army. It is well that we are afoot to-morrow. ”