ane of flight and pursuit, as it might have seemed to a
stranger, that swept to and from Lancaster all day long, hunting the
county up and down, and regularly subsiding about sunset, united with the
permanent distinction of Lancashire as the very metropolis and citadel of
labour, to point the thoughts pathetically upon that counter vision of
rest, of saintly repose from strife and sorrow, towards which, as to their
secret haven, the profounder aspirations of man's heart are continually
travelling. Obliquely we were nearing the sea upon our left, which also
must, under the present circumstances, be repeating the general state of
halcyon repose. The sea, the atmosphere, the light, bore an orchestral part
in this universal lull. Moonlight, in the first timid tremblings of the
dawn, were now blending: and the blendings were brought into a still more
exquisite state of unity, by a slight silvery mist, motionless and dreamy,
that covered the woods and fields, but with a veil of equable transparency.
Except the feet of our own horses, which, running on a sandy margin of the
road, made little disturbance, there was no sound abroad. In the clouds,
and on the earth, prevailed the same majestic peace; and in spite of all
that the villain of a schoolmaster has done for the ruin of our sublimer
thoughts, which are the thoughts of our infancy, we still believe in no
such nonsense as a limited atmosphere. Whatever we may swear with our false
feigning lips, in our faithful hearts we still believe, and must for ever
believe, in fields of air traversing the total gulf between earth and the
central heavens. Still, in the confidence of children that tread without
fear _every_ chamber in their father's house, and to whom no door is
closed, we, in that Sabbatic vision which sometimes is revealed for an hour
upon nights like this, ascend with easy steps from the sorrow-stricken
fields of earth, upwards to the sandals of God.

[Footnote 1: "Sigh-born:" I owe the suggestion of this word to an obscure
remembrance of a beautiful phrase in Giraldus Gambrensis, viz., _suspiriosae
cogilationes_.]

Suddenly from thoughts like these, I was awakened to a sullen sound, as
of some motion on the distant road. It stole upon the air for a moment; I
listened in awe; but then it died away. Once roused, however, I could not
but observe with alarm the quickened motion of our horses. Ten years'
experience had made my eye learned in the valuing of motion; and I sa