He followed his friend’s counsel in all respects.  But the messenger dispatched for Mr. Weasel returned with the news that that gentleman was out of town; he was very busy at that season—­there were other folks in difficulties besides our hero, urgent for his consolation and advice as to their course of conduct before my Lord the Judge.  Mr. Dodge, however, assured Richard, upon taking leave, that he would dispatch the attorney after him that very night.

The road to Cross Key was, for many miles, the same which he had lately traveled in the reverse direction; yet how different it looked!  He had been in far from good spirits on that occasion, but how infinitely more miserable was he now!  The hills, the rocks, the streams were far more beautiful than he had ever thought them, but they mocked him with their beauty.  He longed to get out of the vehicle, and feel the springy turf, the yielding heather, beneath his feet; to lave his hands in the sparkling brook, to lie on the moss-grown rock, and bask in the blessed sun.  Perhaps he should never see them any more—­these simple everyday beauties, of which he had scarcely taken any account when they were freely offered for his enjoyment.  He looked back on even the day before, wherein he had certainly been wretched enough, with yearning regret.  He had at least been a free man, and when should he be free again?  Ah, when!  He was, as it were, in a prison on wheels, guarded by two jailers.  Escape would have been hopeless, even had it been judicious to make the attempt.  His only consolation was, that Solomon Coe was no longer with him to jeer at his dejected looks.  He had started for Gethin with the news, doubtless as welcome to Trevethick as to himself, of the prisoner’s committal.  What would Harry say when she came to hear of it?  What would she not suffer?  Richard cast himself back in his seat, and groaned aloud.  The man at his side exchanged a glance with his companion.  “He is guilty, this young fellow.”  “Without doubt, he’s booked.”  They had their little code of signals for such occasions.

The day drew on, and the soft sweet air of evening began to rise.  They had stopped here and there for refreshments, but Richard had taken nothing; he had, however, always accompanied his custodians within doors at the various halting-places.  He was afraid of the crowd that might gather about the vehicle to look at the man that was being taken to prison.  There was nothing to mark him as such, but it seemed to him that nobody could fail to know it.  He welcomed the approach of night.  They still traveled on for hours, since there was no House of Detention at which he could be placed in safety on the road; at last the wheels rumbled over the uneven stones of a little country town; they stopped before a building similar, so far as he could see by the moonlight, to that to which he had been taken at Plymouth:  all jails are alike, especially to the eyes of the prisoner.  A great bell was rung; there was a parley with the keeper of the gate.  The whole scene resembled something which Richard remembered to have read in a book; he knew not what, nor where.  A door in the wall was opened; they led him up some stone steps; the door closed behind him with a clang; and its locks seemed to bite into the stone.