They were studded, at due intervals, with ruts so deep that if a horse! happened to get into one of them he went down to the saddle-skirts.

They were treacherous, too, and such as no caution could guard against; because, where the whole surface of the road was one mass of mud, it was impossible to distinguish these horse-traps at all.

Then, in addition to these, were deep gullies across the roads, worn away by small rills, proceeding from rivulets in the adjoining uplands, which were; principally dry, or at least mere threads of | water in summer, but in winter became pigmy torrents that tore up the roads across which they passed, leaving them in the dangerous state we have described.
As Reilly and his companion had got out upon the road, they were a good deal surprised, and not a little alarmed, to see a horse, without a rider, struggling to extricate himself out of one of the ruts in question.

"What is this ?" said Fergus.

"Be on your guard." "The horse," observed Reilly, "is without! a rider; see what it means." Fergus approached with all due caution, and on examining the place discovered a man lying apparently in a state of insensibility.
"I fear," said he, on returning to Reilly, "that his rider has been hurt; he is lying senseless about two or three yards before the horse." "My God!" exclaimed the other, "perhaps he has been killed; let us instantly assist him.