I do not want to lie awake half the night; and if you wake me when you come to bed, I shall not sleep again." He tried to persuade me to stay and drink a little more; but I would not: and for very courtesy he had to come with me.
In spite of my drowsiness, however, when I was once in bed and the light was out I could not at once sleep.

I heard the watchman go by and cry that it was a fine night; and I heard the carriages go by, and the chairs; and saw the light of the links on the ceiling at the end of my bed; and I heard a brawl once and the clash of swords and the scream of a woman; as well as the snoring of my Cousin Tom, who fell asleep at once, so full he was of French wine.

But it was not these things that kept me awake, except so far as they were signs to me of where I was.
For here I was in London at last, which, whatever men may say, is the heart of the world, as Rome is the heart of the Church; and there, within a gunshot, was the gate of Whitehall where the King lived, and where my fortunes lay.

Neither was I here as a mere Englishman come home again after seven years, but as a messenger from the Holy See, with work both to find and to do.

To-morrow I must set out, to buy, as I may say, the munitions of war--my clothes and my new periwigs and my swords and my horses; and then after that my holy war was to begin.