fearfully, that one of them dropped the
tinder box; and the other caught up his gun and cocked it, at least as
I judged by the sounds they made. And then, too late, I knew my madness,
for if either of them had fired, no doubt but what all the village would
have risen and rushed upon me. However, as the luck of the matter went,
it proved for my advantage; for I heard one say to the other,--

'Curse it, Charlie, what was that? It scared me so, I have dropped my
box; my flint is gone, and everything. Will the brimstone catch from
your pipe, my lad?'

'My pipe is out, Phelps, ever so long. Damn it, I am not afraid of an
owl, man. Give me the lanthorn, and stay here. I'm not half done with
you yet, my friend.'

'Well said, my boy, well said! Go straight to Carver's, mind you. The
other sleepy heads be snoring, as there is nothing up to-night. No
dallying now under Captain's window. Queen will have nought to say to
you; and Carver will punch your head into a new wick for your lanthorn.'

'Will he though? Two can play at that.' And so after some rude jests,
and laughter, and a few more oaths, I heard Charlie (or at any rate
somebody) coming toward me, with a loose and not too sober footfall. As
he reeled a little in his gait, and I would not move from his way one
inch, after his talk of Lorna, but only longed to grasp him (if common
sense permitted it), his braided coat came against my thumb, and his
leathern gaiters brushed my knee. If he had turned or noticed it, he
would have been a dead man in a moment; but his drunkenness saved him.

So I let him reel on unharmed; and thereupon it occurred to me that I
could have no better guide, passing as he would exactly where I wished
to be; that is to say under Lorna's window. Therefore I followed him
without any especial caution; and soon I had the pleasure of seeing
his form against the moonlit sky. Down a steep and winding path, with
a handrail at the corners (such as they have at Ilfracombe), Master
Charlie tripped along--and indeed there was much tripping, and he must
have been an active fellow to recover as he did--and after him walked I,
much hoping (for his own poor sake) that he might not turn and espy me.

But Bacchus (of whom I read at school, with great wonder about his
meaning--and the same I may say of Venus) that great deity preserved
Charlie, his pious worshipper, from regarding consequences. So he led
me very kindly to the top of the meadow land, where the strea