Now, how changed! how saddened, yet how elevated was his
character, within the course of a very few months! Danger and misfortune
are rapid, though severe teachers. 'A sadder and a wiser man,' he felt in
internal confidence and mental dignity a compensation for the gay dreams
which in his case experience had so rapidly dissolved.
As he approached the village he saw, with surprise and anxiety, that a
party of soldiers were quartered near it, and, what was worse, that they
seemed stationary there. This he conjectured from a few tents which he
beheld glimmering upon what was called the Common Moor. To avoid the risk
of being stopped and questioned in a place where he was so likely to be
recognised, he made a large circuit, altogether avoiding the hamlet, and
approaching the upper gate of the avenue by a by-path well known to him.
A single glance announced that great changes had taken place. One half of
the gate, entirely destroyed and split up for firewood, lay in piles,
ready to be taken away; the other swung uselessly about upon its loosened
hinges. The battlements above the gate were broken and thrown down, and
the carved bears, which were said to have done sentinel's duty upon the
top for centuries, now, hurled from their posts, lay among the rubbish.
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