She heard him crashing among the bushes behind her. She felt the sting of the bare branches that whipped her face as she ran. Blindly she sped along till right at her feet she saw the ground open where a sunken bridle-path ran between steep banks. Far off on the path she heard, as something that did not concern her, like a sound in a dream, a muffled padding of horse-hoofs.
Panting and spent, she jumped down the bank into the path, and as she did so, she caught her skirt on a prickly bush of holly. She was brought to her knees by the sudden jerk, and before she could free her skirt and rise she felt Herbert's grasp close on her arm.
"You jade! I'll learn you now!" Herbert cried.
All the time she had heard the horse-hoofs, nearer and nearer, and she heard now a deep voice.
"Lord 'a' mercy! Ye little fools!" the voice said. "Will ye be ridden down?"
Horses, two horses, that looked to Merrylips as tall as steeples, were halted right above her. In the saddle of one a big man in a steel cap and a leathern coat sat gaping. From the saddle of the other there had vaulted down a slim young fellow in a shiny cuirass, with a plumed hat on his head and a sword slung from his baldric. He caught Herbert by the neck.
"Learn her, wilt thou?" he cried in a clear, youthful voice. "Faith, here's a schooling in which I'll bear a hand, my pretty gentleman!"
"Faith, here's a schooling in which I'll bear a hand, my pretty gentleman!"