“Draw that hood over your face to conceal it as much as possible, and remember if we are caught I shall address you as ‘the Princess,’” I said to my companion. “I can’t tell you now what I think of your courage.”
She did what I asked, and her features were so concealed that, had the troopers known the Princess by sight, they could not have seen it was not she by my side.
The first party numbered under a dozen men, and as we approached they made no effort to stop us, but drew their horses aside and let us pass.
“Are they following us?” I asked anxiously, for that would be the test whether my ruse was to fail or succeed.
The girl glanced back.
“Yes. They’ve closed in behind and are galloping after us.”
“Thank God for that!” I cried; and I laid the whip on the horses again till they were travelling at headlong, desperate, racing speed.
Then in the mist, as we neared the end of the lane, I saw the main body drawn up in a mass completely blocking the road. They had evidently heard us coming and were prepared for us, and they sat on their horses with their carbines levelled.
“Halt there! or we fire,” shouted someone.
But he might as well have shouted to a mountain torrent to stop, for my horses were smarting under the whip I had laid on so generously, and no driver on earth could have stayed their wild rush. Indeed, the words were scarcely out of his lips before we plunged madly right into the midst of them, scattering them to right and left and sending them cannoning one against the other in the utmost confusion.