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My ride with Major FairbairnMr Thorold at his drill A certain impatience

seized me; an impatience of the circumstances and position in

which I found myself privately, and of the ominous state and

position of affairs in public The horizon black with clouds,

the gru and

quiet which go before the storm's burst It irkedourselves

united, but standing apart as if it were not so, and telling a

lie to the world It weighed on ht and that anything openly acknowledged was

easier to bear And then Major Fairbairn's talk had filledso very

threatening, and the outbreak of the storain the tranquillity of the days past, do

what I would I did a very unwise thing, I suppose, for I went

to reading the papers And they were full of Northern

preparations and of Southern boastings; I grew s, I remember, was a

letter from Russell, the Times correspondent, over whichan

Englishht be

expected to judge more coolly and speak more dispassionately