"We can vault?" said Heartley.
"On!" cried the knight; and in a moment both had cleared the wall and the dry ditch beyond; but at the same moment the sounds of two parties of pursuers were heard in the parallel alley.
"Down in the ditch!" cried the knight; "they will see us if we take to the open field."
No sooner was it said than done, and immediately after, they heard as they lay, the feet and voices of half a dozen men passing rapidly by.
"I was sure they did not take this way, Joe," cried one.
"And I am sure they did!" answered the other. "They're in the wood now. Let us----"
What he said more was lost, and after pausing for a moment or two till the sounds were but faintly heard in the wood, Longpole and his lord betook them to the open field, and soon were out of sight of the park.
CHAPTER VIII.
I do believe it: the common world
Teems out with things we know not; and our mind,
Too gross for us to scan the mighty whole,
Knows not how busy all creation is.
In the original history here follows a long chapter describing how Sir Payan Wileton, sitting in deep and earnest consultation with Sir Cesar, the magician, regarding the teeming future, was only awakened to a full sense of the present by the very resonant "Oh!" uttered by Jekin Groby as he fell from the window. And the same chapter goes on at great length to detail all that Sir Payan did and said upon making the discovery of his prisoners' evasion. His fury, his menaces, his orders, his promises to those who should retake them, are all described fully, and in very sublime language by Professor Vonderbrugius. But nevertheless we shall omit them, as well as the long account by which they are preceded of the strange and curious ceremonies employed by Sir Cesar to ascertain the event of many dark schemes that were then revolving in the breasts of men; and we think that the reasons which induce us to leave out all those curious particulars, will fully justify our so doing in the opinion of our readers. In the first place, we wish to follow our hero as fast as possible; in the next place, every reader whose head is any better than a turnip, can easily figure the mad rage of a passionate though wily man, on finding that his prey has escaped from his hand; and in the third place, we did not translate this chapter, inasmuch as Vonderbrugius, besides being vastly sublime, was wholly unintelligible.