As I did not know the way, I knew that I might count
on going wrong, taking wrong turns, etc. As I wished to avoid
people, I counted on travelling most of the way across country,
trusting to luck to find my way among the fields. So that,
although in five hours I should travel perhaps ten or twelve
miles, I could not count on getting more than six miles towards
Taunton.
CHAPTER XXIII. FREE
For the first hour or two, as no one would be about so early, I
thought it safe to use the road. I put my best foot foremost,
going up the great steep combe, with Chard at my back.
The road was one of the loneliest I have ever trodden. It went
winding up among barren-looking combes which seemed little better
than waste land. There were few houses, so few that sometimes, on
a bit of rising ground, when the road lifted clear of the hedges,
one had to look about to see any dwelling of men. There was
little cultivation, either. It was nearly all waste, or scanty
pasture. A few cows cropped by the wayside near the lonely
cottages. A few sheep wandered among the ferns. It was a very
desolate land to lie within so few miles of England's richest
valleys. I walked through it hurriedly, for I wished to get far
from my prison before my escape was discovered. No one was there
to see me; the lie of the valley below gave me my direction,
roughly, but closely enough. After about an hour of steady,
fairly good walking, I pulled up by a little tiny brook for
breakfast.
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