They continued thus to beguile the way, till Walter again sank into a
reverie, while the Corporal, who began more and more to dislike the
aspect of the ground they had entered on, still rode by his side.

The road was heavy, and wound down the long hill which had stricken so
much dismay into the Corporal's stout heart on the previous day, when he
had beheld its commencement at the extremity of the town, where but for
him they had not dined. They were now little more than a mile from the
said town, the whole of the way was taken up by this hill, and the road,
very different from the smoothened declivities of the present day, seemed
to have been cut down the very steepest part of its centre; loose stones,
and deep ruts encreased the difficulty of the descent, and it was with a
slow pace and a guarded rein that both our travellers now continued their
journey. On the left side of the road was a thick and lofty hedge; to the
right, a wild, bare, savage heath, sloped downward, and just afforded a
glimpse of the spires and chimneys of the town, at which the Corporal was
already supping in idea! That incomparable personage was, however,
abruptly recalled to the present instant, by a most violent stumble on
the part of his hard-mouthed, Romannosed horse. The horse was all but
down, and the Corporal all but over.

"Damn it," said the Corporal, slowly recovering his perpendicularity,
"and the way to Lunnon was as smooth as a bowling-green!"

Ere this rueful exclamation was well out of the Corporal's mouth, a
bullet whizzed past him from the hedge; it went so close to his ear, that
but for that lucky stumble, Jacob Bunting had been as the grass of the
field, which flourisheth one moment and is cut down the next!