[Micah Clarke by Arthur Conan Doyle]@TWC D-Link bookMicah Clarke CHAPTER VIII 18/27
We dismounted at this latter village, and had a cup of ale while resting and watering the horses.
The landlord could tell us nothing about the insurgents, and indeed seemed to care very little about the matter one way or the other.
'As long as brandy pays a duty of six shillings and eightpence a gallon, and freight and leakage comes to half a crown, while I am expected to sell it at twelve shillings, it matters little to me who is King of England.
Give me a king that will prevent the hop-blight and I am his man.' Those were the landlord's politics, and I dare say a good many more were of his way of thinking. From Dean to Salisbury is all straight road with moor, morass, and fenland on either side, broken only by the single hamlet of Aldersbury, just over the Wiltshire border.
Our horses, refreshed by the short rest, stepped out gallantly, and the brisk motion, with the sunlight and the beauty of the morning, combined to raise our spirits and cheer us after the depression of the long ride through the darkness, and the incident of the murdered traveller.
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