Although Wayland Smith used the utmost dispatch which he could make,

yet this mode of travelling was so slow, that when morning began to dawn

through the eastern mist, he found himself no farther than about ten

miles distant from Cumnor. "Now, a plague upon all smooth-spoken

hosts!" said Wayland, unable longer to suppress his mortification and

uneasiness. "Had the false loon, Giles Gosling, but told me plainly two

days since that I was to reckon nought upon him, I had shifted better

for myself. But your hosts have such a custom of promising whatever is

called for that it is not till the steed is to be shod you find they are

out of iron. Had I but known, I could have made twenty shifts; nay, for

that matter, and in so good a cause, I would have thought little to have

prigged a prancer from the next common--it had but been sending back

the brute to the headborough. The farcy and the founders confound every

horse in the stables of the Black Bear!"

The lady endeavoured to comfort her guide, observing that the dawn would

enable him to make more speed.

"True, madam," he replied; "but then it will enable other folk to take

note of us, and that may prove an ill beginning of our journey. I

had not cared a spark from anvil about the matter had we been further

advanced on our way. But this Berkshire has been notoriously haunted,

ever since I knew the country, with that sort of malicious elves who

sit up late and rise early for no other purpose than to pry into other

folk's affairs. I have been endangered by them ere now. But do not

fear," he added, "good madam; for wit, meeting with opportunity, will

not miss to find a salve for every sore."

The alarms of her guide made more impression on the Countess's mind than

the comfort which he judged fit to administer along with it. She looked

anxiously around her, and as the shadows withdrew from the landscape,

and the heightening glow of the eastern sky promised the speedy rise of

the sun, expected at every turn that the increasing light would expose

them to the view of the vengeful pursuers, or present some dangerous

and insurmountable obstacle to the prosecution of their journey. Wayland

Smith perceived her uneasiness, and, displeased with himself for having

given her cause of alarm, strode on with affected alacrity, now talking

to the horse as one expert in the language of the stable, now whistling

to himself low and interrupted snatches of tunes, and now assuring

the lady there was no danger, while at the same time he looked sharply

around to see that there was nothing in sight which might give the

lie to his words while they were issuing from his mouth. Thus did

they journey on, until an unexpected incident gave them the means of

continuing their pilgrimage with more speed and convenience.




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