The night was tempestuous but my bribe was high and I easily procured a countryman.

We passed through many lanes and over fields and wild downs; the rain poured down in torrents; and the loud thunder broke in terrible crashes over our heads.

Oh! What a night it was! And I passed on with quick steps among the high, dank grass amid the rain and tempest.

My dream was for ever in my thoughts, and with a kind of half insanity that often possesses the mind in despair, I said aloud; "Courage! We are not near the sea; we are yet several miles from the ocean"-- Yet it was towards the sea that our direction lay and that heightened the confusion of my ideas.

Once, overcome by fatigue, I sunk on the wet earth; about two hundred yards distant, alone in a large meadow stood a magnificent oak; the lightnings shewed its myriad boughs torn by the storm.