re at all; for as had been settled
before we left home, we lay that night at Dunster in the house of
a worthy tanner, first cousin to my mother, who received us very
cordially, and undertook to return old Smiler to his stable at Plover's
Barrows, after one day's rest.

Thence we hired to Bridgwater; and from Bridgwater on to Bristowe,
breaking the journey between the two. But although the whole way was so
new to me, and such a perpetual source of conflict, that the remembrance
still abides with me, as if it were but yesterday, I must not be so long
in telling as it was in travelling, or you will wish me farther;
both because Lorna was nothing there, and also because a man in our
neighbourhood had done the whole of it since my time, and feigns to
think nothing of it. However, one thing, in common justice to a person
who has been traduced, I am bound to mention. And this is, that being
two of us, and myself of such magnitude, we never could have made our
journey without either fight or running, but for the free pass which
dear Annie, by some means (I know not what), had procured from Master
Faggus. And when I let it be known, by some hap, that I was the own
cousin of Tom Faggus, and honoured with his society, there was not
a house upon the road but was proud to entertain me, in spite of my
fellow-traveller, bearing the red badge of the King.

'I will keep this close, my son Jack,' he said, having stripped it off
with a carving-knife; 'your flag is the best to fly. The man who starved
me on the way down, the same shall feed me fat going home.'

Therefore we pursued our way, in excellent condition, having thriven
upon the credit of that very popular highwayman, and being surrounded
with regrets that he had left the profession, and sometimes begged to
intercede that he might help the road again. For all the landlords on
the road declared that now small ale was drunk, nor much of spirits
called for, because the farmers need not prime to meet only common
riders, neither were these worth the while to get drunk with afterwards.
Master Stickles himself undertook, as an officer of the King's Justices
to plead this case with Squire Faggus (as everybody called him now), and
to induce him, for the general good, to return to his proper ministry.

It was a long and weary journey, although the roads are wondrous good on
the farther side of Bristowe, and scarcely any man need be bogged, if he
keeps his eyes well open, save, perhaps, i