felt. 
  He all the while was in demeanour calm, 440
  Concise in answer; solemn and sublime
  He might have seemed, but that in all he said
  There was a strange half-absence, as of one
  Knowing too well the importance of his theme,
  But feeling it no longer.  Our discourse 445
  Soon ended, and together on we passed
  In silence through a wood gloomy and still. 
  Up-turning, then, along an open field,
  We reached a cottage.  At the door I knocked,
  And earnestly to charitable care 450
  Commended him as a poor friendless man,
  Belated and by sickness overcome. 
  Assured that now the traveller would repose
  In comfort, I entreated that henceforth
  He would not linger in the public ways, 455
  But ask for timely furtherance and help
  Such as his state required.  At this reproof,
  With the same ghastly mildness in his look,
  He said, “My trust is in the God of Heaven,
  And in the eye of him who passes me!” 460

    The cottage door was speedily unbarred,
  And now the soldier touched his hat once more
  With his lean hand, and in a faltering voice,
  Whose tone bespake reviving interests
  Till then unfelt, he thanked me; I returned 465
  The farewell blessing of the patient man,
  And so we parted.  Back I cast a look,
  And lingered near the door a little space,
  Then sought with quiet heart my distant home.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTES ON THE TEXT

[Footnote A:  On the road from Kendal to Windermere.—­Ed.]

[Footnote B:  At the Ferry below Bowness.—­Ed.]

[Footnote C:  From the Ferry over the ridge to Sawrey.—­Ed.]

[Footnote D:  The Vale of Esthwaite.—­Ed.]

[Footnote E:  Hawkshead Church; an old Norman structure, built in 1160, the year of the foundation of Furness Abbey.  It is no longer “snow-white,” a so-called Restoration having taken place within recent years, on architectural principles.  The plaster is stripped from the outside of the church, which is now of a dull stone colour.

“Apart from poetic sentiment,” wrote Dr. Cradock (the late Principal of Brasenose College, Oxford), “it may be doubted whether the pale colour, still preserved at Grasmere and other churches in the district, does not better harmonize with the scenery and atmosphere of the Lake country.”.

The most interesting feature in the interior is the private chapel of Archbishop Sandys.—­Ed.]

[Footnote F:  Hawkshead Church is a conspicuous object as you approach the town, whether by the Ambleside road, or from Sawrey.  It is the latter approach that is here described.—­Ed.]

[Footnote G:  Anne Tyson,—­Ed.]