221 



A STAGE COACH. 



To those who are regardless of dust, rain, and heat, 

 and to whom broken legs and arms are every day in- 

 cidents, the outside of a coach is, no doubt, more 

 agreeable than the inside ; but to those who were 

 born when the insides of carriages were considered 

 the better places, and in which a man is secured 

 against the sudden and frequent changes of our ex- 

 traordinary climate, the right hand corner facing the 

 horses seems to be no uncomfortable position. 

 In such a corner was Saville deposited, when 

 the Rocket darted forwards on the high road to 

 Portsmouth. 



And what road is fuller of interest to thousands of 

 our fellow-subjects. It is one of the great paths of 

 our nation which leads the anxious merchant to his 

 foreign store, the seaman to his fearful trade, and 

 on which the devoted lover journies from his anxious 

 mistress, and the faithful husband from his constant 

 wife. Along that road has many a noble soldier 

 travelled, to whom there has been no return ; along 

 that road the British sailor has often sped to victory 

 or death. It does not strike the ordinary run of ad - 

 mirers of well appointed public carriages, who stand 

 and praise the neat " turn out," and the " well bred 

 cattle" of these Portsmouth coaches, what interest 

 for others hangs upon their wheels; nor as they roll 

 along the level ground, does the casual observer 

 think what feelings, what hopes, what fears, what 

 doubts, what anticipations, and what regrets are 

 pent within their pannels. 



In the coach with Saville were three other pass- 

 engers — the full allowance : two were friends ; the 

 third, like Saville himself, was an independent, iso- 

 lated traveller. What he was, or what was the 

 object of his journey, of course remained within his 

 own bosom. Of the other two, one was a partner in 

 a mercantile house at the Cape of Good Hope, 

 where he never had been, and the other, one who 



