These took some time; so that the sun was down, and it was growing dusk when we marched out, Clon going first, supported by his two guards, the Captain and I following--abreast, and eyeing one another suspiciously; the Lieutenant, with the sergeant and five troopers, bringing up the rear.

Clon moved slowly, moaning from time to time; and but for the aid given him by the two men with him, must have sunk down again and again.
He led the way out between two houses close to the inn, and struck a narrow track, scarcely discernible, which ran behind other houses, and then plunged into the thickest part of the wood.

A single person, traversing the covert, might have made such a track; or pigs, or children.

But it was the first idea that occurred to us, and put us all on the alert.

The Captain carried a cocked pistol, I held my sword drawn, and kept a watchful eye on HIM; and the deeper the dusk fell in the wood, the more cautiously we went, until at last we came out with a sort of jump into a wider and lighter path.
I looked up and down, and saw behind me a vista of tree-trunks, before me a wooden bridge and an open meadow, lying cold and grey in the twilight; and I stood in astonishment.