Fortunately, the ground was soft, for a garden adjoined the stable; but the shock was a heavy one, and he lay for a minute or two without moving, having some doubt whether he had not broken his neck.

Then he got up, and listened.
Everything was still and quiet, and, indeed, his fall had been almost noiseless.

He rose to his feet, felt along the wall until he encountered a low paling, climbed over it, and was in the road.
He had, when he jumped for the window, tied his boots to his back, and now carried them in his hand.

The night was very dark; but his eyes, accustomed to the greater darkness of the stable, had no difficulty in following the road.

He walked slowly, for the exertion he had undergone and the shock of the fall had drawn greatly from his small stock of strength.
After going a quarter of a mile, he put on his boots, and, climbing a wall of sods which bordered the road, struck across country.