Tom listened agape, feeling as though his horizon were growing wider every hour.  He had been scarce more than a week in town, and, behold, all life seemed changed about him.  Already he had been plunged into an adventure which would probably end in the spilling of blood; and now the prospect was opening out before him of travel and adventure of a kind of which he had never dreamed.  It seemed impossible that he could be the same raw rustic youth who, a few short months ago, was accounted the greatest roisterer of his own county.  His doings in the past seemed just the outcome of boyish spirits.  He had been nothing but a great boy in those days; now he felt that his manhood was coming upon him by leaps and bounds.

At Lord Claud’s lodging a repast was awaiting them which was in itself a further revelation to Tom.  He was mightily hungry, too, and fell upon the good cheer with an appetite that entertained his host.  The food he found most excellent, though seasoned something too strongly for his palate.  But the wines were less to his taste, and he presently made bold to ask for a tankard of homely ale, which was brought to him from the servants’ quarters; Lord Claud leaning back with his glass in his hand, and smiling to see the relish with which Tom enjoyed the simple beverage.

“Ah, the time was when I could quaff a tankard of ale with any man, and it may well be that I will do the same again in the future.  But now, Tom, we must come and don riding gear, for the horses will be round ere long.  Oh, have no concern as to that.  My man will have ready all that you will need.  But those silken hose and that broidered vest are little suited to the saddle.”

And, in very sooth, Tom found himself quickly fitted with a pair of stout leathern breeches, a cloth waistcoat, and a pair of riding boots adorned with silver spurs.  A riding switch was put in his hand, and he stood flicking his boots at the top of the staircase till Lord Claud joined him, dressed in a quiet and most irreproachable riding suit, which became the elegance of his figure almost better than the frippery of the first toilet.

The horses stood at the door.  Tom walked up to the great mare and renewed acquaintance with her before swinging himself lightly to the saddle.  She made an instinctive dart with her head, as though to seek to bite his foot; but he patted her neck, touched her lightly with the spur, and sat like a Centaur as she made a quick curvet that had unseated riders before now.

The next minute the pair had started forth in the murky twilight of the autumn evening; but the moon was rising and the mists were dispersing.  Before they had left the houses behind they could see the road clear before them, and were able to give their impatient steeds their heads, and travel at a steady hand gallop.

Tom had approached London from the north, so that all this country was new to him.  He delighted in the feel of a horse betwixt his knees again; and the vagaries of the high-bred mare, who shied and danced at every flickering shadow, kept his pulses tingling and his heart aglow during the whole of that moonlight ride.