; and I went upstairs to my bedroom,
hearing my father shoot the great bolts of the house door for the last
time.

I made shift to take off my coat and shoes, and got into the bed, lest
my mother should come in to bid me good-night, as she sometimes did.
And well it was that I had thought of this, for in her anxiety about
me she followed me up soon after with a dose of the Jesuits' bark,
which she compelled me to swallow, though sorely against my will. Then
she sat down by the bedside for the space of, I daresay, fifteen
minutes, or longer as it seemed to me then, and fell to stroking my
hair, which I wore without a queue, my father setting his face against
that French fashion.

I fidgetted so much that at length my mother perceived that I would be
alone. I heard her draw a sigh as she rose to go away, and then,
tucking the bedclothes round me with great care, she gave me a kiss
and left me.

I waited as long as I could contain my impatience, for my parents to
fall asleep. Then I arose softly, without rekindling the light, which
my mother had blown out, completed my dress, and filled a small
knapsack with such few things as I had immediate need for. I
remembered also to put in my pocket a bright guinea which good Mr.
Walpole had presented me with in my twelfth year as a reward for
having repeated the 119th Psalm, and which my father had strictly
forbidden me to spend.

Thus provided, I opened the door of my bedroom and crept out, carrying
my shoes in my hand. I crossed the landing, treading like a thief, to
the door of the room where my parents slept, and laid my lips against
the panel that was nearest to my mother's side. And with that I found
my eyes were smarting, and a lump rose in my throat, so that I turned
away hastily, and made the best of my way down the stairs, and by
unbarring the kitchen door, out into the open air. Then I turned my
back on the house where I was born, and set out to walk through the
night to Yarmouth.

Lest my father should surmise where I was, I had got ready a feigned
letter in which I pretended--I am ashamed to say so--that seeing no
likelihood of Mr. Walpole's receiving me without that extra fifty
pounds which stuck so in my father's gizzard, I had taken the
resolution of going up to London to seek my fortune; and I promised to
send him news as soon as I should arrive there; which promise, as it
turned out, I had no opportunity of keeping or breaking, for I did not
set foot in th