She stepped into the stern, gave a thrust of the pole against the bank, and I plied the oars with my best strength and skill. As soon almost as we shot out of the darkness into the glare, a loud voice, which I knew was Boswell's, shouted—
"There they go—the witch and the murderer of Lord Sheffield! A fortune to the man that takes him dead or alive!" and at the same time the fence became alive with figures, which for an instant stood black against the light, and then dropped into the darkness where we had been a minute before, reappearing swiftly, some on one bank, some on the other.
Our Islonians were too well accustomed to wading and swimming to be hindered long by water, and they scrambled up the banks at a great rate and ran after us, firing and throwing stones as they ran, until the order was shouted—
"Run ahead, you fools, and then stand and fire."
"Cower low," said I to my company in the boat, pulling with all my might, the sweat pouring down my face.
All obeyed but Bess, who stood up in the stern with the pole in her hands.
We had sped some furlongs under a continual rain of stones and bullets, and whether any one was seriously hurt I did not know, nor even whether I myself had been hit or not, when we were delivered from those of our pursuers who were on my right hand, by their plunging into a bog. Another furlong, and we might escape the others by turning into the Belshaw stream.
While I was saying so to myself—for my panting would not suffer me to say it aloud—the doctor groaned. A minute later a sting in my left arm nearly forced me to let go the oar. Soon after Martha made a moaning cry.
"Crouch, Bess—crouch," I tried to say, but knew not whether she heard. She took no heed if she did, and as at last we neared the mouth of the smaller stream, she struck something in the water; what I could not see, for we were now surrounded by the darkness. Again she struck. Then she turned and said, "Ease a little."
A great yell rent the night from the Idle bank, as our enemies discovered that we had left them in the lurch. Even if they crossed the Idle, they could not hope to pursue us further over the swamps which bordered our little river.