On horseback. Buller behind Seward--myself before a man who
occasionally wore a look of the Driver. I hope it was he--if it was
not--the _Driver_ must have been drowned. We had now the wind--that is,
the storm--that is, the hurricane in our faces--and the animals every
other minute wheeled about and stood rooted for many minutes to the
road, with their tails towards Cladich. My body had fortunately lost
all sensation hours before we regained the Camp.
NORTH.
Hours! How long did it take you to accomplish the two miles?
TALBOYS.
I did not time it; but we entered the Great Gate of the Camp to the
sound of the Breakfast Bagpipes.
SEWARD.
As soon as we had changed ourselves--as you say in Scotland----
TALBOYS.
Let's bother Mr North no more about it. With exception of the Bridge,
'tis not worth talking of--and we ought to be thankful it was not
Night. Then what a delightful feeling of security now, sir, from
all intrusion of vagrant visitors from the Dalmally side! By this
time communication must be cut off with Edinburgh and Glasgow--_via_
Inverary--so the Camp is virtually insulated. In ordinary weather,
there is no calling the Camp our own. So far back as yesterday only,
8 English--4 German--3 French--29 Italian--1 Irish, all Male, many
mustached--and from those and other countries, nearly an equal number
of Female--some mustached too--"but that not much."
NORTH.
Impossible indeed it is to enjoy one hour's consciousness of secure
solitude, in this most unsedentary age of the world.--Look there. Who
the deuce are you, sir? Do you belong to Cloud-land--and have you made
an involuntary descent in the deluge? Or are you of the earth earthy?
Off, sir--off to the back premises. Enter the Pavilion at your peril,
you Phenomenon. Turn him out, Talboys.
TALBOYS.
Then I must turn out myself. I stepped forth for a moment to the
Front----
NORTH.
And have in that moment been transmogrified into the Man of the Moon. A
false alarm. But methinks you might have been satisfied with the Bridge.
TALBOYS.
It is clearing up, sir--it is clearing up--pails and buckets, barrels
and hogsheads, fountains and tanks, are no longer the order of the day.
Jupiter Pluvius is descending on Juno with moderated impetuosity--is
restricting himself to watering pans and garden engines--there is
reason to suspect, from the look of the atmosphere, that the supplies
are running short--that in a few hours the glass will be up to
Stormy--and hurra, then, for a week of fine, sunshiny, shadowy, breezy,
balmy, angling Weather! Why, it is almost fair now. I do trust that
we shall have no more of those dry, dusty, sandy, gravelly days,
so unlike Lochawe-side, and natural only in Modern Athens or the
Great Desert. Hark! it is clearing up. That is always the way with
thorough-bred rain--desperate spurt or rush at the end--a burst when
blown--dead-beat----
SEWARD.
Mr North, matters are looking serious, sir.
NORTH.
I believe there is no real danger.
SEWARD.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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