Scarce any road came by there; but
a number of footways travelled among the bents in all directions up
to Mr. Bazin's door. The truth is, he was a man of many trades,
not any one of them honest, and the position of his inn was the
best of his livelihood. Smugglers frequented it; political agents
and forfeited persons bound across the water came there to await
their passages; and I daresay there was worse behind, for a whole
family might have been butchered in that house and nobody the
wiser.
I slept little and ill. Long ere it was day, I had slipped from
beside my bedfellow, and was warming myself at the fire or walking
to and fro before the door. Dawn broke mighty sullen; but a little
after, sprang up a wind out of the west, which burst the clouds,
let through the sun, and set the mill to the turning. There was
something of spring in the sunshine, or else it was in my heart;
and the appearing of the great sails one after another from behind
the hill, diverted me extremely. At times I could hear a creak of
the machinery; and by half-past eight of the day, and I thought
this dreary, desert place was like a paradise.
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