"They have possessed themselves of your father's fleetest horses; and, if I mistake not, the rascally pursuivant has secured your favourite barb." "My gentle Zayda!" exclaimed Viviana.

"Then indeed we are lost.

She has not her match for speed." "If she bring her rider to us alone, she will do us good service," observed Guy Fawkes, significantly.
The same notion, almost at the same moment, occurred to the pursuivant.
Having witnessed the prowess displayed by Guy Fawkes in his recent attack on the soldiers, he felt no disposition to encounter so formidable an opponent single-handed; and finding that the high-mettled barb on which he was mounted, by its superior speed and fiery temper, would inevitably place him in such a dilemma, he prudently resolved to halt, and exchange it for a more manageable steed.
This delay was of great service to the fugitives, and enabled them to get considerably ahead.

They had now gained a narrow lane, and, tracking it, speedily reached the rocky banks of the Irwell.

Galloping along a foot-path that followed the serpentine course of the stream for a quarter of a mile, they arrived at a spot marked by a bed of osiers, where Humphrey Chetham informed them there was a ford.
Accordingly, they plunged into the river, and while stemming the current, which here ran with great swiftness, and rose up above the saddles, the neighing of a steed was heard from the bank they had quitted.