My Dear Eddie, Whatever view a storyteller may take of his business, ’tis happy when he can think, “This book of mine will please such and such a friend,” and may set that friend’s name after the titl...

He that has jilted the Muse, forsaking her gentle pipe to follow the drum and trumpet, shall fruitlessly besiege her again when the time comes to sit at home and write down his adventures. ’Tis her re...

Guess, any of you, if these events disturbed my rest that night. ’Twas four o’clock before I dropp’d asleep in my bed in Trinity, and my last thoughts were still busy with the words I had heard. Nor, ...

It wanted, maybe, a quarter to seven, that evening, when, passing out at the College Gate on my way to All Hallows’ Church, I saw under the lantern there a man loitering and talking with the porter. ’...

So puffed up was I by the condescension of the two princes, and my head so busy with big thoughts, that not till I was over the bridges and climbing the high ground beyond South Hincksey, with a shrew...

Secure of pursuit, and full of delight in the mare’s easy motion, I must have travelled a good six miles before the moon rose. In the frosty sky her rays sparkled cheerfully, and by them I saw on the ...

By the sound of their steps I guess’d one or two of these dozen rascals to be pretty far gone in drink, and afterward found this to be the case. I look’d round. Sir Deakin had pick’d up the lamp and w...

But I must go back a little and tell you what befell in my expedition. I had scarce trudged out of sight of my friends, down the hill, when it struck me that my footprints in the snow were in the last...

Almost before daylight we were afoot, and the first ray of cold sunshine found us stepping from the woods into the plain, where now the snow was vanished and a glistening coat of rime spread over all ...

You are now to be ask’d to pass over the next four weeks in as many minutes: as would I had done at the time! For I spent them in a bitter cold cell in the main tower of Bristol keep, with a chair and...

“Now either I am mad or dreaming,” thought I: for that the fellow had not heard our noise was to me starkly incredible. I stepp’d along the deck toward him: not an inch did he budge. I touch’d him on ...

And now I did indeed abandon myself to despair. Few would have given a groat for my life, with that crew at my heels; and I least of all, now that my dear comrade was lost. The wound in my shoulder wa...

But the pain of my hurt followed into my dreams. I woke with a start, and tried to sit up. Within the kitchen all was quiet. The old savage was still stretch’d on the floor: the cat curled upon the he...

There had, indeed, been brave work on Braddock Down that 19th of January. For Sir Ralph Hopton with the Cornish grandees had made short business of Ruthen’s army⁠—driving it headlong back on Liskeard ...

Very early next morning I awoke, and hearing no sound in the loft above (whither, since my coming, Joan had carried her bed), concluded her to be still asleep. But in this I was mistaken: for going to...

You may guess how I felt at being thus properly fooled. And the worst was I could see no way to mend it; for against the barricade between us I might have beat myself for hours, yet only hurt my fists...

Night came, and found us but midway between Temple and Launceston: for though my comrade stepp’d briskly beside me, ’twas useless to put Molly beyond a walk; and besides, the mare was new from her day...

The rest of this signal victory (in which 1,700 prisoners were taken, besides the Major-General Chudleigh; and all the rebels’ camp, cannon and victuals) I leave historians to tell. For very soon afte...

We came, a little before midnight, to Sir Bevill’s famous great house of Stow, near Kilkhampton: that tonight was brightly lit and full of captains and troopers feasting, as well they needed to, after...

The dayspring came at last, and in the sick light of it I went down to the cottage for spade and pickaxe. In the tumult of my senses I hardly noted that our prisoner, the dragoon, had contrived to sli...

We had some ado to find the gate: but no sooner were through, and upon the high road, than I lash’d the horses up the hill at a gallop. To guide us between the dark hedges we had only our lantern and ...