However, luck was with him, and he got on without delay to Daventry, and had to be roused from sleep when his postboy pulled up before the famous old Wheat-sheaf that, wakeful and alight, was ready with its welcome. Here cheerful fires were burning and everything was done for him. A chaise had just come in from Towcester. The horses’ mouths were washed out while he swallowed a crust and another glass of brandy and water, the horses were turned round, and he was away again. He composed himself, shivering, in the warmer corner, and, thanking his stars that he had got off, was beginning to nod, when the chaise suddenly tilted to one side and he slid across the seat. He sat up in alarm and felt the near wheels clawing at the ditch, and thought that he was over. A moment of suspense, and through the fog that dimmed the window-panes flaming lights blazed above him and over him, and the down mails thundered by, coach behind coach—three coaches, the road quivering beneath them, the horses cantering, the guards replying with a volley of abuse to the postboy’s shout of alarm. Huge, lighted monsters, by night the bullies of the road, they were come and gone in an instant, leaving him staring with dazzled eyes into the darkness. But the shave had not bettered his temper. The stage seemed a long one, the horses slow, and he was fretting and fuming mightily, and by no means as grateful as he should have been for the luck that had hitherto attended him, when at last he jogged into Towcester. Alas, the inn here was awake, indeed, in a somnolent, grumpy, sullen fashion, but there were no horses. “Not a chance of them,” said the sleepy boots, nicking a dirty napkin towards the coffee room. “There are two business gents waiting there to get on—life and death, ’cording to them. They’re going up same way as you are, and they’ve first call. And there’s a gentleman and his servant for Birmingham—down, they are, and been waiting since eleven o’clock and swearing tremendous!” “Then I’ll take mine on!” Clement said, and whipped out into the night and ran to his chaise. But he was too late. The gentleman’s servant had been on the watch, he had made his bargain and stepped in, and his master was hurrying out to join him. “The devil!” cried Clement, now wide awake and very angry. “That’s pretty sharp!” “Yes, sir, sharp’s the word,” said the boots. It was evident that night work had made him a misanthrope, or something else had soured him. “They’d be no good for Brickhill anyway. It’s a long stage. You’ll take a bed?” “Bed be hanged!” said Clement, wondering what he should do. This seemed to be a dead stop, and very black he looked. At last, “I’ll go to the yard,” he said. “There’s nobody up. You’d best——” and again the boots advised a bed.