I rejoice we did. A close carriage is in all weathers detestable--your vehicle should be open to all skyey influences--with nothing about it that can be set up or let down--otherwise some one or other of the party--on some pretence or other--will be for shutting you all in. And then--Farewell, Thou green Earth--Thou fair Day--and ye Skies! It had apparently been raining for some little time---- NORTH. For six hours, and more heavily, I do think, than I ever heard it rain before in this watery world. Having detected a few drops in the ceiling of my cubiculum, I had slipt away to the Van on the first blash of the business--and from that hour to this have been under the Waterfall--as snug as a Kelpie. TALBOYS. In we got--well jammed together--a single gentleman, or even two, would have been blown out--and after some remonstrances with the old Greys, we were off to Luib. Long before we were nearly half-way up the brae behind the Camp, Seward complained that the water was running down his back--but ere we reached the top, that inconvenience and every other was merged. The carriage seemed to be in a sinking state, somewhere about Achlian; and rolling before the rain-storm--horses we saw none--it needed no great power of imagination to fear we were in the Loch. At this juncture we came all at once close upon--and into--an appalling crash, and squash, and splash--a plunging, rushing, groaning, and moaning, and roaring--which for half-a-minute baffled conjecture. The Bridge--you know it, sir--the old Bridge, that Seward was never tired of sketching--going--going--gone; down it went--men, horses, all, at the very parapet, And sent us with a _jaup_ in among the Woods. NORTH. Do you mean to say you were on the Bridge as it sunk? TALBOYS. I know nothing about it. How should I? We were in the heart of the Noise--we were in the heart of the Water--we were in the heart of the Wood--we, the vehicle, the horses--the same horses, I believe, that were standing behind the Camp when we mounted--though I had not seen them distinctly since, till I recognised them madly galloping in their traces up and down the foaming banks. NORTH. Were you all on this side of the River? TALBOYS. Ultimately we were--else how could we have got here? You seem incredulous, sir. Mind me--I don't say we were on the Bridge--and went down with it. It is an open question--and in the absence of dispassionate witnesses must be settled by probabilities. Sorry that, though the Driver saved himself, the Vehicle in the mean time should be lost--with all the Rods. NORTH. They will be recovered on a change of weather. How and when got ye back? TALBOYS.