They drove round several times, each time quicker than the preceding, while Hans, with extraordinary energy, cracked the pliant leather whip peculiar to sledges. Several people collected to look on, among others a carter, with an empty wagon. One of his horses was young and unbroken; as the sledge passed, it plunged, and rattled its heavy harness; Hamilton’s horses shied, dashed into the deep snow heaped up beside the road, upset the sledge, and then struggled violently to make themselves free. Hamilton still contrived to hold the reins until his servant came to his assistance, and then rushed to Hildegarde, who had been thrown to some distance. A crowd had soon gathered round her.
“Hildegarde, dearest, are you hurt?” he asked, anxiously.
“Not in the least,” she answered, laughing, while she shook the snow from her cloak, “not in the least; I was thrown at the first jerk into the fresh snow, and every time I attempted to get up I fell back again, until I received assistance, for which I thank you,” she said, turning to some strangers; and then she added hurriedly to Hamilton, “Let us go home.”
The sledge had been easily set to rights, and they once more drove off at a furious pace.
“As wild a young pair as ever I saw,” observed an officer to his wife, as they turned towards the inn to rest, and refresh themselves with a cup of coffee.
“We have disobeyed your mother,” began Hamilton, “unintentionally indeed, but——”
“How do you mean?”
“Why, she forbade our leaving the sledge on any account whatever,” said Hamilton, laughing; “now, I don’t in the least mind being lectured by her, but I confess I do not enjoy the idea of Major Stultz’s triumph. How unmercifully I shall be laughed at!”
“I don’t see any necessity for saying anything about the matter,” said Hildegarde; “if you choose to be silent, I shall never refer to the subject; in fact, I was altogether to blame, it was my proposition driving round that enclosure, and it was I who encouraged you to worry the horses, in order to show you that I was not afraid of them.”
“The carter and his young horse were to blame,” said Hamilton; “he ought not to have come so close to us; but I should be very glad to escape Major Stultz’s heavy raillery. Do you hear, Hans—you fell out of the sledge in your sleep—not even to your father must you say otherwise than that my horses are as steady as oxen. Do you understand?”