pleasant change, we set forth at once for London; and
truly thankful may I be that God in His mercy spared me the sight of
the cruel and bloody work with which the whole country reeked and howled
during the next fortnight. I have heard things that set my hair on end,
and made me loathe good meat for days; but I make a point of setting
down only the things which I saw done; and in this particular case, not
many will quarrel with my decision. Enough, therefore, that we rode on
(for Stickles had found me a horse at last) as far as Wells, where we
slept that night; and being joined in the morning by several troopers
and orderlies, we made a slow but safe journey to London, by way of Bath
and Reading.

The sight of London warmed my heart with various emotions, such as a
cordial man must draw from the heart of all humanity. Here there are
quick ways and manners, and the rapid sense of knowledge, and the power
of understanding, ere a word be spoken. Whereas at Oare, you must say a
thing three times, very slowly, before it gets inside the skull of the
good man you are addressing. And yet we are far more clever there than
in any parish for fifteen miles.

But what moved me most, when I saw again the noble oil and tallow of the
London lights, and the dripping torches at almost every corner, and
the handsome signboards, was the thought that here my Lorna lived, and
walked, and took the air, and perhaps thought now and then of the old
days in the good farm-house. Although I would make no approach to her,
any more than she had done to me (upon which grief I have not dwelt, for
fear of seeming selfish), yet there must be some large chance, or the
little chance might be enlarged, of falling in with the maiden somehow,
and learning how her mind was set. If against me, all should be over. I
was not the man to sigh and cry for love, like a Romeo: none should even
guess my grief, except my sister Annie.

But if Lorna loved me still--as in my heart of hearts I hoped--then
would I for no one care, except her own delicious self. Rank and title,
wealth and grandeur, all should go to the winds, before they scared me
from my own true love.

Thinking thus, I went to bed in the centre of London town, and was
bitten so grievously by creatures whose name is 'legion,' mad with the
delight of getting a wholesome farmer among them, that verily I was
ashamed to walk in the courtly parts of the town next day, having lumps
upon my face of the size of