very remote in the distance, a few cottages thinly scattered. This
prospect did not altogether please me; I conceived that my safety would,
for the present, be extremely assisted, by keeping myself from the view
of any human being.

I therefore came down again into the valley, and upon a careful
examination perceived that it was interspersed with cavities, some
deeper than others, but all of them so shallow, as neither to be capable
of hiding a man, nor of exciting suspicion as places of possible
concealment. Meanwhile the day had but just begun to dawn; the morning
was lowering and drizzly; and, though the depth of these caverns was of
course well known to the neighbouring inhabitants, the shadows they cast
were so black and impenetrable, as might well have produced wider
expectations in the mind of a stranger. Poor therefore as was the
protection they were able to afford, I thought it right to have recourse
to it for the moment, as the best the emergency would supply. It was for
my life; and, the greater was the jeopardy to which it was exposed, the
more dear did that life seem to become to my affections. The recess I
chose, as most secure, was within little more than a hundred yards of
the end of the lane, and the extreme buildings of the town.

I had not stood up in this manner two minutes, before I heard the sound
of feet, and presently saw the ordinary turnkey and another pass the
place of my retreat. They were so close to me that, if I had stretched
out my hand, I believe I could have caught hold of their clothes,
without so much as changing my posture. As no part of the overhanging
earth intervened between me and them, I could see them entire, though
the deepness of the shade rendered me almost completely invisible. I
heard them say to each other, in tones of vehement asperity, "Curse the
rascal! which way can he be gone?" The reply was, "Damn him! I wish we