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1It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and
2winter in the shade. We had our pea-coats with us, and I took a bag. Of all my worldly possessions I took no more than
3the few necessaries that filled the bag. Where I might go, what I might do, or when I might return, were questions
4utterly unknown to me; nor did I vex my mind with them, for it was wholly set on Provis's safety. I only wondered for
5the passing moment, as I stopped at the door and looked back, under what altered circumstances I should next see those
6rooms, if ever. We loitered down to the Temple stairs, and stood loitering there, as if we were not quite decided to go
7upon the water at all. Of course, I had taken care that the boat should be ready and everything in order. After a little
8show of indecision, which there were none to see but the two or three amphibious creatures belonging to our Temple
9stairs, we went on board and cast off; Herbert in the bow, I steering. It was then about high-water,--half-past eight.
10Our plan was this. The tide, beginning to run down at nine, and being with us until three, we intended still to creep on
11after it had turned, and row against it until dark. We should then be well in those long reaches below Gravesend,
12between Kent and Essex, where the river is broad and solitary, where the water-side inhabitants are very few, and where
13lone public-houses are scattered here and there, of which we could choose one for a resting-place. There, we meant to
14lie by all night. The steamer for Hamburg and the steamer for Rotterdam would start from London at about nine on
15Thursday morning. We should know at what time to expect them, according to where we were, and would hail the first; so
16that, if by any accident we were not taken abroad, we should have another chance. We knew the distinguishing marks of
17each vessel. The relief of being at last engaged in the execution of the purpose was so great to me that I felt it
18difficult to realise the condition in which I had been a few hours before. The crisp air, the sunlight, the movement on
19the river, and the moving river itself,--the road that ran with us, seeming to sympathise with us, animate us, and
20encourage us on,--freshened me with new hope. I felt mortified to be of so little use in the boat; but, there were few
21better oarsmen than my two friends, and they rowed with a steady stroke that was to last all day. At that time, the
22steam-traffic on the Thames was far below its present extent, and watermen's boats were far more numerous. Of barges,
23sailing colliers, and coasting-traders, there were perhaps, as many as now; but of steam-ships, great and small, not a
24tithe or a twentieth part so many. Early as it was, there were plenty of scullers going here and there that morning, and
25plenty of barges dropping down with the tide; the navigation of the river between bridges, in an open boat, was a much
26easier and commoner matter in those days than it is in these; and we went ahead among many skiffs and wherries briskly.
27Old London Bridge was soon passed, and old Billingsgate Market with its oyster-boats and Dutchmen, and the White Tower
28and Traitor's Gate, and we were in among the tiers of shipping. Here were the Leith, Aberdeen, and Glasgow steamers,
29loading and unloading goods, and looking immensely high out of the water as we passed alongside; here, were colliers by
30the score and score, with the coal-whippers plunging off stages on deck, as counterweights to measures of coal swinging
31up, which were then rattled over the side into barges; here, at her moorings was to-morrow's steamer for Rotterdam, of
32which we took good notice; and here to-morrow's for Hamburg, under whose bowsprit we crossed. And now I, sitting in the
33stern, could see, with a faster beating heart, Mill Pond Bank and Mill Pond stairs. "Is he there?" said Herbert. "Not
34yet." "Right! He was not to come down till he saw us. Can you see his signal?" "Not well from here; but I think I see
35it.--Now I see him! Pull both. Easy, Herbert. Oars!" We touched the stairs lightly for a single moment, and he was on
36board, and we were off again. He had a boat-cloak with him, and a black canvas bag; and he looked as like a river-pilot
37as my heart could have wished. "Dear boy!" he said, putting his arm on my shoulder, as he took his seat. "Faithful dear
38boy, well done. Thankye, thankye!" Again among the tiers of shipping, in and out, avoiding rusty chain-cables frayed
39hempen hawsers and bobbing buoys, sinking for the moment floating broken baskets, scattering floating chips of wood and
40shaving, cleaving floating scum of coal, in and out, under the figure-head of the John of Sunderland making a speech to
41the winds (as is done by many Johns), and the Betsy of Yarmouth with a firm formality of bosom and her knobby eyes
42starting two inches out of her head; in and out, hammers going in ship-builders' yards, saws going at timber, clashing
43engines going at things unknown, pumps going in leaky ships, capstans going, ships going out to sea, and unintelligible
44sea-creatures roaring curses over the bulwarks at respondent lightermen, in and out,--out at last upon the clearer
45river, where the ships' boys might take their fenders in, no longer fishing in troubled waters with them over the side,
46and where the festooned sails might fly out to the wind. At the stairs where we had taken him abroad, and ever since, I
47had looked warily for any token of our being suspected. I had seen none. We certainly had not been, and at that time as
48certainly we were not either attended or followed by any boat. If we had been waited on by any boat, I should have run
49in to shore, and have obliged her to go on, or to make her purpose evident. But we held our own without any appearance
50of molestation. He had his boat-cloak on him, and looked, as I have said, a natural part of the scene. It was remarkable
51(but perhaps the wretched life he had led accounted for it) that he was the least anxious of any of us. He was not
52indifferent, for he told me that he hoped to live to see his gentleman one of the best of gentlemen in a foreign
53country; he was not disposed to be passive or resigned, as I understood it; but he had no notion of meeting danger half
54way. When it came upon him, he confronted it, but it must come before he troubled himself. "If you knowed, dear boy," he
55said to me, "what it is to sit here alonger my dear boy and have my smoke, arter having been day by day betwixt four
56walls, you'd envy me. But you don't know what it is." "I think I know the delights of freedom," I answered. "Ah," said
57he, shaking his head gravely. "But you don't know it equal to me. You must have been under lock and key, dear boy, to
58know it equal to me,--but I ain't a-going to be low." It occurred to me as inconsistent, that, for any mastering idea,
59he should have endangered his freedom, and even his life. But I reflected that perhaps freedom without danger was too
60much apart from all the habit of his existence to be to him what it would be to another man. I was not far out, since he
61said, after smoking a little:-- "You see, dear boy, when I was over yonder, t'other side the world, I was always a
62looking to this side; and it come flat to be there, for all I was a growing rich. Everybody knowed Magwitch, and
63Magwitch could come, and Magwitch could go, and nobody's head would be troubled about him. They ain't so easy concerning
64me here, dear boy,--wouldn't be, leastwise, if they knowed where I was." "If all goes well," said I, "you will be
65perfectly free and safe again within a few hours." "Well," he returned, drawing a long breath, "I hope so." "And think
66so?" He dipped his hand in the water over the boat's gunwale, and said, smiling with that softened air upon him which
67was not new to me:--
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