Chapter LIII

It was a dark night, though the full moon rose as I left the enclosed lands, and passed out upon the marshes.

Beyond their dark line there was a ribbon of clear sky, hardly broad enough to hold the red large moon.
In a few minutes she had ascended out of that clear field, in among the piled mountains of cloud.
There was a melancholy wind, and the marshes were very dismal.

A stranger would have found them insupportable, and even to me they were so oppressive that I hesitated, half inclined to go back.

But I knew them well, and could have found my way on a far darker night, and had no excuse for returning, being there.

So, having come there against my inclination, I went on against it.
The direction that I took was not that in which my old home lay, nor that in which we had pursued the convicts.