The Road to Paris: A Story of AdventureStephens, Robert Neilson
History
The Road to Paris: A Story of Adventure
Stephens, Robert Neilson
Adventure stories; Historical fiction; United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Fiction
As Dick strutted along the busy street, glancing at the shop-windows,
and in turn glanced at by more than one pair of demure eyes, he suddenly
bethought himself that a gentleman in velvet and lace, with silk
stockings and gold buckles, but without a penny in pocket or in
prospect, was a somewhat anomalous personage. Moreover, the county towns
and country villages were a field far less worth shining in as a
gentleman than were certain fields he now began to think he might soon
visit.
He therefore visited certain dealers in the town, and by dinner-time he
was minus the gold-headed cane and a gold-mounted snuff-box, but was the
richer by a plainer snuff-box; some changes of linen, underclothes,
neck-cloths, and handkerchiefs; a bag in which to carry all his
movables; and a suit of clothes. He chose the last with a view to the
fit only, regardless of the fact that it was a gamekeeper's costume. At
another inn than the one where he had met the stranger, Dick doffed his
fine feathers, put on the gamekeeper's suit, and dined, paying for his
dinner with some money he had over from the proceeds of the cane and
snuff-box.
In the afternoon, carrying his bag of clothes slung by a stick over his
shoulder, he left Taunton behind, presently abandoned the road that went
northward to Bridgewater, and proceeded northeastward, traversing
charming vales, and arriving at night at a village about half-way
between Taunton and Glastonbury. His pack of cards earned his supper and
bed, both in the house of a simple-minded blacksmith.
The next day he passed through Glastonbury, pausing to indulge his
imagination before the ruined abbey in which Kings Arthur and Edgar were
buried, as well as before the rotting cross in the town's centre, and
before the Tor of St. Michael on the hill northeast. He fed nothing but
his imagination at this place, and hastened on to Wells, where he stayed
his stomach further while admiring the magnificent west front of the
Gothic Cathedral, the high square tower and ornate exterior of St.
Cuthbert's Church, and the other fine old buildings.
At the inn, he found, among other travellers, a party of lesser gentry
on whose hands time hung heavily, their business being finished, but
themselves being unwilling to set forth on a Friday. Dick soon
ingratiated himself with these gentlemen, whose thick and empty heads
were already astray with punch, wine, and ale; and he was made not only
a sharer of their good cheer, but the sole occupant of the bed of one
whom he tried to assist thither but who persisted in sleeping on the
floor instead.
Leaving early the next morning, ere his benefactors were awake to eject
him as some presuming plebeian who had availed himself of their
drunkenness, Dick proceeded northeastward towards Bath, his eyes
rejoicing in the beauty of the Mendip hills and the surrounding country.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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