Page:The English Peasant.djvu/267

 yet these honours I had not earned. I took to myself a sort of reproach for possessing what I had no right to, and resolved to have a just claim by sharing in the hardships and dangers."

He could not sleep that night for thinking of that wonderful fleet, but rose up with the daylight, went down to the old castle on the beach, got on the battlements, and had a nearer look at it. He was impatient to be off at once, so he went without delay to Portsmouth, got into a boat, and in a few minutes was on board the Pegasus man-of-war.

The captain looked at the ruddy-cheeked youth, and, thinking perhaps it was a pity that the owner of such an honest, ingenuous face should be exposed to the corruptions of the forecastle, tried to dissuade him by telling him, in sailor-like fashion, that if he became one of his crew, he would have to be married to Miss Roper. Strange to say, Captain Berkeley had a stronger will than even young Cobbett, and by no entreaties could he be prevailed upon to allow him to stay. The would-be sailor, determined not to be balked, went to the Port-Admiral, but he, directly he learnt what Captain Berkeley had said, refused to entertain the application.

"It is not in a man that walketh to direct his steps." Who would have supposed that in the days of press-gangs, on the eve of active service, two naval commanders would have refused a healthy, intelligent, ardent young volunteer? But so it was! William Cobbett was intended for other work than to help in the relief of Gibraltar, and perhaps get shot for his pains.

However, the sea had inoculated him with its own restless nature. Next year he was off again, and this, time it was to London.

"It was," he relates, "on the 6th of May 1783, that I, like Don Quixote, sallied forth to seek adventures. I was dressed in my holiday clothes, in order to accompany two or three lasses to Guildford Fair. They were to assemble at a house about three miles from my home, where I was to attend them; but, unfortunately for me, I had to cross the London turnpike road. The stage-coach had just turned the summit of a hill, and was rattling towards me at a merry rate. The notion of going to London never entered my mind till this very moment, yet the step was completely determined upon before the coach came to the spot