might lead us in due time, half-way toward Ragland Castle! What was to be
done? One in the company now remarked, "Of what service is it to boast a
pioneer, if we do not avail ourselves of his services?" Mr. Coleridge
received the hint, and set off up one of the lanes at his swiftest speed,
namely, a cautious creep; whilst we four stood musing on the wide extent
of human vicissitudes! A few hours before, surrounded by a plethora of
enjoyments, and now desponding and starving in the depth of what appeared
an interminable forest. To augment our trouble, fresh anxieties arose!
From Mr. Coleridge's long absence, we now almost feared whether hard
necessity might not force us to go in search of our way-bewildered or
quagmired companion!

To our great joy, we now faintly heard, in the stillness of night, the
horse's hoofs sliding over the loose stones! The sound drew nearer. Mr.
Coleridge approached and pensively said, that could not be the way, for
it led to an old quarry which the quick sight of his steed discovered
just in time to save both their necks! Mr. C. was next ordered instantly
to explore one of the other two ominous lanes; when like a
well-disciplined orderly man, he set off gallantly on his new commission.
After waiting a time, which in our state of suspense might almost be
called a period, he leisurely returned, significantly saying, that
neither man nor beast could pass that way! rubbing his thorn-smitten
cheek. Now came the use of the syllogism, in its simplest form. "If the
right road must be A, B, or C, and A and B were wrong, then C must be
right." Under this conviction, we marched boldly on, without further
solicitude or exploration,' and at length joyfully reached--Tintern
Abbey!

On arriving at this celebrated place, to which so many travellers resort,
(thanks now to his Grace of Beaufort for a better road than ours) the