Such certainly would have been his impression but for the sack in which
he had been enveloped, and the absence of his keys. The blow, which he
had not ceased to feel, might have been got by a drunken man in a
thousand ways, and was no argument to show the presence of an enemy; but
the sack, and the missing keys--they brought instant conviction, and a
rapidly increasing sobriety, which, as it duly increased his capacity
for reflection, was only so much more unpleasant than his drunkenness.
But no time was to be lost, and the first movement--having essayed,
though ineffectually, to kick his stupid host and snoring brother-in-law
into similar consciousness with himself--was to rush headlong to the
jail, where he soon realized all the apprehensions which assailed him
when discovering the loss of his keys. The prisoner was gone, and the
riotous search which he soon commenced about the village collected a
crowd whose clamors, not less than his own, had occasioned the uproar,
which concluded the conference between Miss Colleton and Guy Rivers, as
narrated in a previous chapter.
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