er
than I could have dared to hope, he became drowsy and incoherent. With
the wrong-headedness of all such sots, he would not be persuaded to lie
down upon one of the mattresses until I had stretched myself upon
another. But the comedy was soon over; soon he slept the sleep of the
just, and snored like a military music; and I might get up again and
face (as best I could) the excessive tedium of the afternoon.

I had passed the night before in a good bed; I was denied the resource
of slumber; and there was nothing open for me but to pace the apartment,
maintain the fire, and brood on my position. I compared yesterday and
to-day--the safety, comfort, jollity, open-air exercise and pleasant
roadside inns of the one, with the tedium, anxiety, and discomfort of
the other. I remembered that I was in the hands of Fenn, who could not
be more false--though he might be more vindictive--than I fancied him.
I looked forward to nights of pitching in the covered cart, and days of
monotony in I knew not what hiding-places; and my heart failed me, and I
was in two minds whether to slink off ere it was too late, and return to
my solitary way of travel. But the Colonel stood in the path. I had not
seen much of him; but already I judged him to be a man of childlike
nature--with that sort of innocence and courtesy that, I think, is only
to be found in old soldiers or old priests--and broken with years and
sorrow. I could not turn my back on his distress; could not leave him
alone with the selfish trooper who snored on the next mattress.
"Champdivers, my lad, your health!" said a voice in my ear, and stopped
me--and there are few things I am more glad of in the retrospect than
that it did.

It must have been about four in the afternoon--at least the rain had
taken off, and the sun was setting with some wintry pomp--when the
current of my reflections was effectually changed by the arrival of two
visitors in a gig. They were farmers of the neighbourhood, I
suppose--big, burly fellows in greatcoats and top-boots, mightily
flushed with liquor when they arrived, and, before they left, inimitably
drunk. They stayed long in the kitchen with Burchell, drinking,
shouting, singing, and keeping it up; and the sound of their merry
minstrelsy kept me a kind of company. The night fell, and the shine of
the fire brightened and blinked on the panelled wall. Our illuminated
windows must have been visible not only from the back lane of which Fenn
had spoke