Let me
know where you are, and leave the rest to me. She MUST come round; she
can't hold out long; and as to the chances of your being retaken in
the meanwhile, why it wasn't one man who got out of Newgate, but three
hundred. Think of that, for your comfort.'
'We must support life. How?'
'How!' repeated the blind man. 'By eating and drinking. And how get meat
and drink, but by paying for it! Money!' he cried, slapping his pocket.
'Is money the word? Why, the streets have been running money. Devil send
that the sport's not over yet, for these are jolly times; golden, rare,
roaring, scrambling times. Hallo, bully! Hallo! Hallo! Drink, bully,
drink. Where are ye there! Hallo!'
With such vociferations, and with a boisterous manner which bespoke his
perfect abandonment to the general licence and disorder, he groped his
way towards the shed, where Hugh and Barnaby were sitting on the ground.
'Put it about!' he cried, handing his flask to Hugh. 'The kennels run
with wine and gold. Guineas and strong water flow from the very pumps.
About with it, don't spare it!'
Exhausted, unwashed, unshorn, begrimed with smoke and dust, his hair
clotted with blood, his voice quite gone, so that he spoke in whispers;
his skin parched up by fever, his whole body bruised and cut, and beaten
about, Hugh still took the flask, and raised it to his lips.
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