The storm was broken before we could set out, and the ride so far as Hoddesdon was such as I shall never forget; for the wind was violent against us; and it was pitchy dark before we came even to Puckeridge; the thunder was as if great guns were shot off, or bags of marbles dashed on an oak floor overhead; and the countryside was as light as day under the flashes, so that we could see the trees and their shadows, and, I think, sometimes the green colour of them too.

We wore, all three of us--the courier, I and my man James--horse-men's cloaks, but these were saturated within half an hour.

We had no fear of highwaymen, even had we not been armed, for the artillery of heaven had long ago driven all other within doors.
The hardest part of the journey was that I knew, no more than the dead--indeed not so much--why it was that Mr.Chiffinch had sent for me.
He had said nothing in his letter, save that His Majesty wished my presence at once; and on the outside of the letter was written the word "Haste," three times over.

I thought of a hundred matters that it might be, but none of them satisfied me.
It is near forty miles from Hare Street to Whitehall; but so bad was the way that, though we changed horses at Waltham Cross--at the _Four Swans_--we did not come to London until eight o'clock in the morning; and it was half-past eight before we rode up to Whitehall.

The last part of the journey was pretty pleasant, for the rain held off; and it was strange to see the white hard light of the clouded dawn upon the fields and the trees.