consciousness--of inward dignity--I have gained since I came
within the walls of this poor cottage--my own four walls.
They simply admit that I am _Herr im Hause_, and act on
this conviction. There is no grumbling about my habitudes
and whims. If I choose to dine on fire and brimstone, they
will cook it for me to their best skill, thinking only that
I am an unintelligible mortal, _facheux_ to deal with,
but not to be dealt with in any other way. My own four walls.

The last words form the refrain of a set of verses, the most
characteristic, as Mr. Froude justly observes, of the writer, the actual
composition of which seems, however, to belong to the next chapter of his
career, beginning--

Wild through the wind the huntsman calls,
As fast on willing nag I haste
Home to my own four walls.

The feeling that inspires them is clenched in the defiance--

King George has palaces of pride,
And armed grooms must ward those halls;
With one stout bolt I safe abide
Within my own four walls.

Not all his men may sever this;
It yields to friends', not monarchs' calls;
My whinstone house my castle is--
I have my own four walls.