So, instead of getting down as he inconsiderately counselled, I drew myself farther up by a mighty effort, and thrust half my body into the coach, whereupon the fair lady screamed again, and the whip caressed my legs.

But within the coach sat another woman, dark of hair and exquisite of face, who eyed my advent with a disdainful glance.

Her proud countenance bore the stamp of courage, and to her it was that I directed my appeal.
"Madame, permit me, I pray, to seek shelter in your carriage, and suffer me to journey a little way with you.

Quick, Madame! Your coachman is drawing rein, and I shall of a certainty be murdered under your very nose unless you bid him change his mind.

To be murdered in itself is a trifling matter, I avow, but it is not nice to behold, and I would not, for all the world, offend your eyes with the spectacle of it." I had judged her rightly, and my tone of flippant recklessness won me her sympathy and aid.