Page:Narrative of a captivity and adventures in France and Flanders between the years 1803 and 1809.djvu/137

 took the road to Bruges; so that, had there been any suspicion, this accidental occurrence must have thrown the chace off the scent. Continuing our journey to the N. W., until dawn of day, we entered a thick low wood, and here lay without disturbance, basking in the vivifying rays of the sun, and listening to the church bells summoning all good people to assemble. We would willingly have joined them, had the church been so secure an asylum as the wood. As Whitehurst, with a praiseworthy and religious sense of the dangers he was about to encounter, had packed his prayer-book in his knapsack, and preserved it through all his disasters, we read prayers, offering up our humble thanksgivings for deliverance from the hand of the enemy. About sun-set, it began to rain again, we quitted the wood, and proceeded to the westward, by a very bad road, frequently halting to rest, our feet being excessively tender. At about one A. M., we passed through a village, and took shelter, for some little time, from a very heavy shower, under a portico, and