`Stay at any rate till you have had a night's rest, for you need it, master, and till I can put up what you need for the journey.' "`Let go my horse, man!' I cried, excitedly, setting spurs to the animal and abruptly ending the honest fellow's remonstrance.
"The thought of my father lying ill, dying perhaps, and me here revelling in Ogilby, made it impossible for me to contemplate a moment's delay, even so much as to change my gay attire or provide myself with necessaries for the journey.

Culverton was thirty miles distant.

I had a good horse, and with all my dissipation I was capable of a fair share of endurance.

I therefore yielded to my impulse, and halting only to leave word with a comrade whom I met to explain my absence to the colonel, I dashed off into the night on my way to Culverton.
"What were my thoughts during those first few hours I need hardly tell you.

I hope and trust none of you will ever be tortured by the self- reproach of which I was then the victim.
"For some distance out of Ogilby the roads were pretty good, and I made tolerable progress; so that when morning broke about seven I was at least a dozen miles on my journey.