THE EXETER ROAD in 



twenty pounds ; then he says this will never do, and 

 asks whether the landlord of The White Lion can 

 suggest no coach to his notice that does not carry 

 luggage on the top. 



Here he lays himself open to the unkindest cut of all, 

 which the landlord hastens to avail himself of with all 

 the unbending remorselessness of his kind. 



" Oh yes," he says, " we shall have one here to-night 

 that is not allowed to carry a band-box on the roof ; 

 the Ouicksilver mail, sir, one of the best out of London. 

 Jack White and Tom Brown — picked coachmen over 

 this ground ; Jack White down to-night." 



" Guarded and lighted ? " 



" Both, sir ; blunderbuss and pistols in the sword- 

 case, a lamp each side of the coach and one under the 

 footboard — see to pick up a pin the darkest night of 

 the year." 



" Very fast ? " 



" Oh no, sir ! JUST KEEPS TIME, AND THAT'S ALL ! " 



" That's the coach for me ! ' says the credulous 

 Mirabel ; " and I'm sure I shall feel at my ease in it. I 

 suppose it is what used to be called the Old Mercury ? : ' 



Alas ! not at all. The Devonport, commonly called 

 the Ouicksilver, mail, is half an hour faster than most 

 in England, and is indeed the miracle of the road. She 

 has no luggage on the top, it is true, but she is a mile 

 in the hour quicker than the Comet ; at least three 

 miles in the hour quicker than the Regulator ; and she 

 performs more than half her journey by lamplight. 

 Imagine Mirabel's condition when he discovers into 

 what sort of coach he has been beguiled ! Past Hartley 

 Row he flies, past Hook, where in The White Hart 

 there was and is a splendid old inn ; but it is the dead 

 of night now, and the inn is shut up if the Ouicksilver 

 stopped at it, which it didn't. . The climax comes when 

 old Mirabel awakens from the sleep of exhaustion on a 

 stage which is called the fastest of the journey — it is 

 four miles of ground, and twelve minutes is the time. 



