It seems that they had some notion that ye were not what ye professed to be, so the inn was surrounded as I passed, but none knew which road ye had taken.' 'Said I not so ?' cried Saxon.

'That young viper hath stirred up the regiment against us.

We must push on, for they may send a party on our track.' 'We are off the main road now, 'I remarked; 'even should they pursue us, they would be unlikely to follow this side track.' 'Yet it would be wise to show them a clean pair of heels,' said Saxon, spurring his mare into a gallop.

Lockarby and I followed his example, and we all three rode swiftly along the rough moorland track.
We passed through scattered belts of pinewood, where the wild cat howled and the owl screeched, and across broad stretches of fenland and moor, where the silence was only broken by the booming cry of the bittern or the fluttering of wild duck far above our heads.

The road was in parts overgrown with brambles, and was so deeply rutted and so studded with sharp and dangerous hollows, that our horses came more than once upon their knees.