I will not dissemble the first emotions of joy on the recovery of my freedom, and perhaps the establishment of my fame.

But my pride was soon humbled, and a sober melancholy was spread over my mind by the idea that I had taken an everlasting leave of an old and agreeable companion, and that whatsoever might be the future fate of my history, the life of the historian must be short and precarious." A faint streak of poetry occasionally shoots across Gibbon's prose.
But both prose and poetry had now to yield to stern business.

The printing of three quarto volumes in those days of handpresses was a formidable undertaking, and unless expedition were used the publishing season of the ensuing year would be lost.

A month had barely elapsed before Gibbon with his precious cargo started for England.

He went straight to his printers.