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modern languages, he left Germany, to pursue his travels, and, coming to the frontiers of Italy, he was compelled to perform quarantine, having passed through some places, where the plague was suspected to rage; and, it being the time of Lent, he spent this season of sequestration on a mountain covered with wild thyme and rosemary. From this mountain, after observing a fast all the day, he came down at night to his only meal of oil and fish; and this he constantly repeated, till the time of his quarantine expired.
In his passage over the Alps, his guide being a little way before him, an ass, with a long piece of timber across her back, came suddenly out from the side of a hill, and running down upon him, where the road was extremely narrow, must have thrown him down a precipice, where he must have instantly perished, had not the ass fallen, just as he came up with him, by which accident, the timber swaying made room for him to get behind the ass, and thereby preserved his life. A providential escape, which he never forgot.
At Padua, he applied himself to the study of physics, with such success, that he owed his recovery from an illness he was attacked with there, to the proficiency he had made in that science. 

Apprehending some danger from an information the jesuits had received of him, he prosecuted his journey from Padua to Rome on foot, and from that city to Marseilles, where a fever again seized him; but, contrary to the expectation of his physician, he recovered.

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Embarking here in a small English vessel bound for Spain, he was in danger of falling into the hands of the Turkish pirate, who gave them chace; [sic] but, a richer booty presenting, they escaped.

At Madrid, he received intelligence, by an unexpected way, this his family was involved in great distresses. This immediately turned his thoughts homewards, and instead of passing through France, as he had purposed, he resolved to take the first opportunity of sailing from St. Sebastian's; to which place he walked from Madrid, his finances being very low, owing to a disappointment of some bills he expected to be remitted him there.

After waiting some time at St. Sebastian's for a wind, he embarked, and, in a few days, landed at Dover, after an absence of above five years, his constitution being much strengthened. The affairs of his family answered the description he had received, but he found means to extricate them out of their troubles; in remembrance of which, they ever afterwards set apart the last day of every month, for a day of thanksgiving [sic], using a form of devotion composed by Nicholas. 

In 1624, he was chosen a member of the House of Commons, through the interest of some of the lords of the Virginia company,and was very active against the Lord-Treasurer Cranfield. 

In 1625, the plague raging in London, he conveyed his mother and the family, to her daughter Collet's house, at Bourn, never Cambridge, continuing himself in London to settle their affairs, in order

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[order] to prosecute a design they had entertained of retiring from the world. For this purpose, Mrs. Ferrar had purchased the manor of Little-Gedding, in Huntingdonshire, an obscure village, and so small, that the manor-house was the whole parish. The last tenant had converted the church into a barn, to lodge hay; but now it was beautified and ornamented, the altar hung with silk embroidered with gold, and an organ set up, Nicholas designing to take order, and became shepherd of this little flock, consisting of about forty persons, Mrs. Collet's family included. 

The plague having ceased, they went to London, to take a last farewel [sic] of their friends in the city, and Nicholas, after a fortnight spent in watching, prayer, and fasting, was ordained by Dr. Laud, in King Henry and the Seventh's chapel, at Westminster-Abbey.

On its being known that he was in deacon's orders, his friend, who had any good church-preferment in their gift, importuned him to accept it; but, declining all offers of this kind, he hastened to Gedding, and there begun the strict course of living and discipline, in which he continued to his death, contriving to fill up all his time except the little he allowed to sleep and meals, with religious exercises.

A dove-house they converted into a school, and provided for three masters, where not only the children of the family, but those of other parishes, were taught writing, grammar, arithmetic, and music. The diversions allowed the children were running, vaulting, and shooting with bows.

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The young women, in number nine or ten, were always clad alike, in habits of black stuff; and the time which was not employed in the service of the church, or family prayers, was dedicated to the poor of the neighbouring [sic] villages, to whom they were surgeons, apothecaries, and physicians, when any applied for their assistance. They also sometimes employed themselves in distilling cordial waters, or working furniture for their little church, and easing their grandmother in the care of the family. 
They were all early risers, being up at five in winter, and four in summer; and, on Sundays, the spaces between church hours, were filled up in repeating the psalms, or reading, or attending to the prayers, which were repeated hourly, the organ in the great chamber playing to this hymn:

So angels sing, and so sing we,
To God on high all glory be:
Let him on earth his peace bestow,
And unto men his favour [sic] show.

The whole family, with the schoolmasters, went in procession to church, all clad in black gowns, and Nicholas in his hood and surplice, when, having thrice performed service, they went to Steeple-Gedding, an adjoining village, to hear prayers in the afternoon.

The rules of the family were never violated on account of visitors; if such did not chuse [sic] to join them, they might withdraw. In the great parlour a tablet was affixed to the wall, on which was inscribed,