Then on a fresh horse--a powerful and willing animal he set out once more.
By half-past two he was at Newport.

But so hard had he ridden that man and beast alike were in a lather of sweat, and whilst he himself felt sick and tired, the horse was utterly unfit to bear him farther.

For half an hour he rested there, and made a meal whose chief constituent was brandy.

Then on a third horse he started upon the last stage of his journey.
The wind was damp and penetrating; the roads veritable morasses of mud, and overhead gloomy banks of dark, grey clouds moved sluggishly, the light that was filtered through them giving the landscape a bleak and dreary aspect.

In his jaded condition Kenneth soon became a prey to the depression of it.