And then he was shut up in a prison on the very
top of the Alps [2] and twice as far from home as he had been in Jivvy.
That's a moral against folks in a hurry if ever there was one.
Well, let alone that while he was here he received a free pardon from
the Emperor, which his persecutors took no notice of, he broke out of
prison again, and was caught and brought back half-starving.
And 'twasn't till Christmas of the year 'thirteen that orders came to
march him right away north again, with all the prisoners, to a place in
the Netherlands; and no sooner arrived than away to go again three
hundred and fifty miles west-sou'-west for Tours, on the Loire river.
I've figured it out on the map, and even that is enough to make a man
feel sore in his feet. But what made Bosistow glad at the time, and
vicious after, was that on his way he fell in with a draft of prisoners,
and, among them, with Abe Cummins, who, so to say, had reached the same
place by walking a tenth part of the distance. And, what's more, though
a man couldn't very well get sleek in Jivvy, Abe had kept his bones
filled out somehow, and knew enough navigation by this time to set a
course to the Channel Fleet. 'Deed, that's what he began talking about
on the first day's journey he and Billy trudged together after their
meeting. And he began it after a spell of silence by asking, quiet
like, "Have you been happening to think much about Selina Johns this
last year or two?"
"Most every day," answered Billy.
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