be
forwarded by coach or cart, and, with nothing but a stout oaken cudgel
to encumber him, set out on his walk of about seven miles, with the
determination of compensating himself for previous hours of forced
inaction and constraint by ignoring roads and crossing the country like
an Irish fox-hunter.

Acting on the presumptuous belief that he could find his way to any part
of the world with the smallest amount of direction, he naturally missed
the right road at the outset, and instead of taking the road to St.
Just, pursued that which leads to the Land's End.

The youth, as we have observed, was well-favoured. Tall,
broad-shouldered, deep-chested, and athletic, with an active step, erect
gait, and clear laughing eye, he was one whom a recruiting-sergeant in
the Guards would have looked upon with a covetous sigh. Smooth fair
cheeks and chin told that boyhood was scarce out of sight behind, and an
undeniable _some thing_ on the upper lip declared that manhood was not
far in advance.

Like most people in what may be termed an uncertain stage of existence,
our hero exhibited a variety of apparent contradictions. His great size
and muscular strength and deep bass voice were those of a man, while the
smooth skin, the soft curling hair, and the rollicking gladsome look
were all indicative of the boy. His countenance, too, might have
perplexed a fortune-teller. Sometimes it was grave almost to sternness,
at other times it sparkled with delight, exhibiting now an expression
that would have befitted a sage on whose decisions hung the fate of
kingdoms, and anon displaying a dash of mischief worthy of the wildest
boy in a village school.

Some of the youth's varied, not to say extravagant, actions and
expressions, were perhaps due to the exhilarating brilliancy of the
morning, or to the appearance of those splendid castles which his mind
was actively engaged in building in the air.

The country through which he travelled was at first varied with trees
and bushes clothed in rich foliage; but soon its aspect changed, and ere
long he pursued a path which led over a wide extent of wild moorland
covered with purple heath and gorse in golden-yellow bloom. The ground,
too, became so rough that the youth was fain to confine himself to the
highroad; but being of an explorative disposition, he quickly diverged
into the lanes, which in that part of Cornwall were, and still are,
sufficiently serpentine and intricate to mislead a mo