Now this was little better to me than if we had set
forth at once. Sunday being the very first day
upon which it would be honourable for me to enter
Glen Doone. But though I tried every possible
means with Master Jeremy Stickles, offering him the
choice for dinner of every beast that was on the farm,
he durst not put off our departure later than the
Saturday. And nothing else but love of us and
of our hospitality would have so persuaded him to
remain with us till then. Therefore now my only
chance of seeing Lorna, before I went, lay in watching
from the cliff and espying her, or a signal from her.
This, however, I did in vain, until my eyes were weary
and often would delude themselves with hope of what
they ached for. But though I lay hidden behind
the trees upon the crest of the stony fall, and waited
so quiet that the rabbits and squirrels played around
me, and even the keen-eyed weasel took me for a trunk
of wood—it was all as one; no cast of colour
changed the white stone, whose whiteness now was hateful
to me; nor did wreath or skirt of maiden break the
loneliness of the vale.
[Illustration: 194.jpg Tailpiece]
CHAPTER XXIV
A SAFE PASS FOR KING’S MESSENGER
[Illustration: 195.jpg Illustrated Capital]
A journey to London seemed to us in those bygone days
as hazardous and dark an adventure as could be forced
on any man. I mean, of course, a poor man; for
to a great nobleman, with ever so many outriders,
attendants, and retainers, the risk was not so great,
unless the highwaymen knew of their coming beforehand,
and so combined against them. To a poor man,
however, the risk was not so much from those gentlemen
of the road as from the more ignoble footpads, and
the landlords of the lesser hostels, and the loose
unguarded soldiers, over and above the pitfalls and
the quagmires of the way; so that it was hard to settle,
at the first outgoing whether a man were wise to pray
more for his neck or for his head.
But nowadays it is very different. Not that highway-men
are scarce, in this the reign of our good Queen Anne;
for in truth they thrive as well as ever, albeit they
deserve it not, being less upright and courteous—but
that the roads are much improved, and the growing use
of stage-waggons (some of which will travel as much
as forty miles in a summer day) has turned our ancient
ideas of distance almost upside down; and I doubt
whether God be pleased with our flying so fast away
from Him. However, that is not my business; nor
does it lie in my mouth to speak very strongly upon
the subject, seeing how much I myself have done towards
making of roads upon Exmoor.
To return to my story (and, in truth, I lose that
road too often), it would have taken ten King’s
messengers to get me away from Plover’s Barrows
without one goodbye to Lorna, but for my sense of the
trust and reliance which His Majesty had reposed in
me. And now I felt most bitterly how the very
arrangements which seemed so wise, and indeed ingenious,
may by the force of events become our most fatal obstacles.
For lo! I was blocked entirely from going to see
Lorna; whereas we should have fixed it so that I as
well might have the power of signalling my necessity.
