ed to
resist Monmouth's pillagers.

He slept so heavily that I was tempted to take the key from his hand.
Twice I made little half steps forward to take it; but each time
something in the man's look daunted me. He was a surly-looking man who,
if roused suddenly, in a locked stable, might lay about him without
waiting to see who roused him. He stirred in his sleep as I drew near
him for the second time; so I gave up the key as a bad job. The loft
seemed to be my only chance; as there was only this one big locked
double door upon the lower floor, I clambered up the steep ladder to the
loft, hoping that my luck there might be better, but resolved, if the
worst came, to hide there in the hay until the carter took the horses to
work, leaving the doors open.

I had hardly set my foot upon the loft floor, when one of the horses,
hearing some noise outside, or being moved by some evil spirit, whinnied
loudly, rattling his halter. The noise was enough to arouse an army. It
startled the carter from his bed. I heard him leap to his feet with an
oath; I heard him pad round the stable, talking to the horses in turn; I
heard him unlock the door to see what was stirring. I stood stock-still
in my tracks, not daring to stir towards the cover of the hay at the
farther end of the loft. I heard him walk slowly, grunting heavily,
to the foot of the ladder, where he stopped to listen for any further
signal. If he had come up he must have caught me. I could not have
escaped. But though he seemed suspicious he did not venture further. He
walked slowly back to his bed, grunting discontentedly. In a few minutes
he was sound asleep again; for farming people sleep like sailors, as
though sleep were a sort of spirit muffling them suddenly in a thick
felt blanket. After he had gone off to sleep, I took off my boots, in
order to put them on under my stockings, for the greater quiet which
that muffling gives to the tread. Then I peered about the loft for a way
of escape.

There were big double doors to this upper loft, through which the hay
could be passed from a waggon standing near the wall. These doors were
padlocked on the inside; there was no opening them; the staples were
much too firm for me to remove without a crowbar. The other openings in
the walls were mere loophole slits, about four feet long but only a few
inches broad. There were enough of these to make the place light. By
their light I could see that there was no way of escape for m