He felt that he could ride, as every sailor always feels; and he had a fine horse upon hire from his butcher, which the king himself would pay for.

The inferior men had been sent ahead on foot, with orders to march along and hold their tongues.
And one of these men was John Cadman, the self-same man who had descended the cliff without any footpath.

They were all to be ready, with hanger and pistol, in a hole toward Byrsa Cottage.
Lieutenant Carroway enjoyed his ride.

There are men to whom excitement is an elevation of the sad and slow mind, which otherwise seems to have nothing to do.

And what finer excitement can a good mind have than in balancing the chances of its body tumbling out of the saddle, and evicting its poor self?
The mind of Charles Carroway was wide awake to this, and tenderly anxious about the bad foot in which its owner ended--because of the importance of the stirrups--and all the sanguine vigor of the heart (which seemed to like some thumping) conveyed to the seat of reason little more than a wish to be well out of it.