"We must take a note of the date. It is one we shall remember all our lives. It is the 25th of November, and we will keep it up as a day of festivity and rejoicing, as long as we live."
"That will we," Harry agreed. "It shall be the occasion of an annual gathering of those who got into trouble from those suppers at Sir Marmaduke's. I fancy the others are all in France, but their friends will surely be able to let them know, as soon as they hear the good news.
"I think we shall have a stormy ride tomorrow. The sky looks very wild and threatening."
"It does, indeed; and the wind has got up very much, in the last hour.''
"Yes, we are going to have a storm, beyond all doubt."
The wind got up hourly, and when, before going to bed, they went to pass an hour at a tavern, they had difficulty in making their way against it. Several times in the night they were awoke by the gusts, which shook the whole house, and they heard the crashing of falling chimney pots above the din of the gale.
They had arranged to start as soon as it was light, and had, the evening before, been to a posting inn, and engaged a carriage with four horses for the journey down to Lancashire.
"There is no starting today, gentlemen," the landlord said, as they went down to breakfast by candlelight. "I have looked out, and the street is strewn with chimney pots and tiles. Never do I remember such a gale, and hour by hour it seems to get worse. Why, it is dangerous to go across the street."
"Well, we must try," Charlie said, "whatever the weather. It is a matter of almost life and death."
"Well, gentlemen, you must please yourselves, but I am mistaken if any horse keeper will let his animals out, on such a day as this."