Most of our friends were already there,—some on this side waiting to cross, the more venturesome sitting in the heather and bracken on the farther side, with jokes and laughter and ironical invitations to the laggards to take their courage in their hands and come over.
There was quite a mob in the roadway on the Common, the girls sitting on their horses, most of the men on foot.
"How is the path?" I asked, as I got down for a look.
"I've seen it better and I've seen it worse," said Charles Vaudin. "But, all the same, you know,—on horseback—" and he shook his head doubtfully.
"When it's only your own feet you have to look after it's right enough," said Elie Guérin. "But when it's a horse's and they're four feet apart it's a different kind of game. I'm going to lead over, let those others say what they will. Will you walk, Judi, or will you ride? I can lead the old boy all right."
"I can trust you, mon gars," said the girl, and kept her seat while Elie led the horse slowly and cautiously over the narrow way, with possible death in every foot of it. And all the rest watched anxiously.
The path was at this time about four feet wide in most places, crumbly and weather-worn here and there, but safe enough for ordinary foot traffic. But even so—without a rail on either side, with the blue sea foaming and chafing among the rocks three hundred feet below, and horribly visible on both sides at once—the twisted path when you were on it felt no more than a swinging thread.
It was not every head that could stand it, and small blame to those that could not.
Here and there, in the three hundred feet stretch, great rock pinnacles stood out from the precipitous depths and overshadowed the path, and encouraged the wayfarer by offering him posts of vantage to be attained one by one. But they were far apart, and at best it was an awesome place even on foot, while with a horse the dangers were as plain as the path itself.
Still it was a point of honour to cross the Coupée on Riding Day, and some even compassed it cautiously without dismounting, and took much credit to themselves, though others might call it by other names.