North of the
Potomac there is no rest for the sole of his foot. So, many would say,
that the escapade had far better have been deferred. Eight weeks ago I
should have been of that same opinion, but now I doubt--I--doubt. The
prospect outside ought to be very dark, and rife with peril, to induce a
man to resign himself deliberately to another decameron here.[2]
[Footnote 2: Since writing the above, I have met the parson in England.
I am bound to state that he gives rather a different account of the
escapade, and intimates that the Maryland youth's "tightness" was rather
real than shamed; that it was, in fact, the cause of his being left
behind. It is possible that I may have been too hard on his reverence's
nervousness--scarcely doing justice to his earnestness of purpose; but,
as to the aforesaid infernal machines I decline to retract one word.]
On the 15th of May, my room-fellow was told that he was to be sent South
immediately: he received the news very stolidly, and betrayed no
impatience during the interval that elapsed before the exchange-steamer
could be got ready. Truth to say, it is rather an equivocal
advantage--to be turned loose in a city where famine-prices prevail,
utterly penniless. But, if my mate did not exult in his prospects,
neither did he in any way despond.
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