THE MAN WITH THE . 423 



the very clouds were pierced with their heights, and I thought while 

 contemplating them, of the mighty structure which men in the 

 olden time designed should reach Heaven. Around me waved the 

 foliage of many a noble tree, like plumed giants bowing a courteous 

 welcome. From afar, the breeze came laden with sweets as delicious 

 as the perfumed gales that scent a Persian garden, and every fresh 

 swell was accompanied by a faint note of music ! In the distance, 

 about a dozen peasants, male and female, were dancing ; but the 

 great space between us rendered their forms so indistinct, so aerial, 

 that they appeared like a band of spirits wantoning through the air, 

 to greet the evening. Beyond these, on the summit of a little hill, was 

 defined the form of a young cavalier, in bold relief against the sky ; 

 whilst the slender, graceful form of a girl was bent with affectionate 

 interest towards him, and above all this this assemblage of the 

 beautiful and grand the gallant and the lovely shone a setting sun, 

 so large, so gorgeously bright, so magnificently sublime, that my soul 

 thrilled with wild ideas; I thought myself in Paradise, with the 

 Eternal Eye gazing upon me ! But even this," he continued, " was 

 inferior to what I felt, when, on returning to England, I saw the sun 

 set beneath the billows which lave its shores the shores of my own 

 nativity ! " 



" And what mighty fine thing did you compare that to ? " sourly 

 and sarcastically inquired the man in sables. 



" To a jolly, red-faced old buck, who having nearly worn out his 

 jacket in our day's service, was descending to renovate it in oil of tar 

 against the morrow. There's poetry for you, my old raven," said 

 Canvas ; " what think you of that, old dead-alive ? " and he gave 

 him a slap on the back that made him groan again. A roar of 

 laughter at the expense of the gentleman in black, enlivened us for 

 some time, until our spirits waned as the evening closed in, and our 

 eyelids felt heavy with sleep. The gentleman in black was the first 

 to drop off, and after him followed the ditto in canvas, comfortably 

 reposing against the luggage, leaving the officer and myself to pursue 

 our own reflections. Now, it struck me, was the time for learning 

 who my friend in canvas was, and accordingly I anxiously asked the 

 military gentleman by my side for a solution of the enigma. He 

 smiled and replied : " It is very simple From what you have no 

 doubt already remarked that is, from the circumstances you 

 see of " 



" Exactly ; but that is what I want to see." 



te Why, in consequence of which, you see, he is not unaptly desig- 

 nated on the road the man with the " At this moment, the 



coach deviated most ominously from the perpendicular, and at the 

 next, crash, crash, went the axletre^, and away flew the passengers in 

 all directions like a flock of pigeons. I just remember myself with 

 outstretched legs and pinions, essaying my first flight across a hedge, 

 and alighting with singular dexterity on a heap of manure in an ad- 

 joining field. 



" Every mother's son of you whose bones are broken, scream out 

 for dear life," cried the man in canvas at the top of his voice, starting 

 upon his feet, with a presence of mind that was surprising, consider- 



