I took my printed sheets, the only copy
of my unfinished work existing; and, on pretence of going
straight to Mr. Watson's office, decamped from my lodgings at
Portsburgh a little before the fall of evening, and took the road
towards England.
As soon as I got clear of the city, I ran with a velocity I knew not
before I had been capable of. I flew out the way towards Dalkeith
so swiftly that I often lost sight of the ground, and I said to
myself, "Oh, that I had the wings of a dove, that I might fly to the
farthest corners of the earth, to hide me from those against whom
I have no power to stand!"
I travelled all that night and the next morning, exerting myself
beyond my power; and about noon the following day I went into
a yeoman's house, the name of which was Ellanshaws, and
requested of the people a couch of any sort to lie down on, for I
was ill, and could not proceed on my journey. They showed me to
a stable-loft where there were two beds, on one of which I laid
me down; and, falling into a sound sleep, I did not awake till the
evening, that other three men came from the fields to sleep in the
same place, one of whom lay down beside me, at which I was
exceedingly glad.
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