I looked forward to nights of pitching in the covered cart, and days of monotony in I knew not what hiding-places; and my heart failed me, and I was in two minds whether to slink off ere it was too late, and return to my former solitary way of travel.

But the Colonel stood in the path.

I had not seen much of him; but already I judged him a man of a childlike nature--with that sort of innocence and courtesy that, I think, is only to be found in old soldiers or old priests--and broken with years and sorrow.

I could not turn my back on his distress; could not leave him alone with the selfish trooper who snored on the next mattress.
'Champdivers, my lad, your health!' said a voice in my ear, and stopped me--and there are few things I am more glad of in the retrospect than that it did.
It must have been about four in the afternoon--at least the rain had taken off, and the sun was setting with some wintry pomp--when the current of my reflections was effectually changed by the arrival of two visitors in a gig.

They were farmers of the neighbourhood, I suppose--big, burly fellows in great-coats and top-boots, mightily flushed with liquor when they arrived, and, before they left, inimitably drunk.