"Let go, let go!"
I obeyed the command and dropped harmlessly to the ground.
"Now be quick and mount!"
A horse stood by my side, saddled and bridled. In an instant I leapt on its back, noticing as I did so that I had now two companions instead of one, and that they also mounted the horses that stood waiting.
"Ride hard!" said my deliverer, turning her horse's face southward.
I gladly obeyed, for I breathed the air of freedom. I was now outside the great high walls within which I had been confined. The spring air seemed sweeter there, while my heart grew warm again and all feelings of fear departed. Midnight as it was, and dark as was the gloomy prison from which I had escaped I seemed in a land of enchantment.
Again a cry, a fearful agonizing cry came from the Witch's Tower, which made me laugh aloud, for Jenkins' fears seemed foolish as I struck my heels into my horse's sides.
Neither of my companions spoke; they seemed as eager to get away as I. We made no noise, for we rode through a meadow. Presently, however, we jumped a low hedge, and then the iron hoofs of our steeds rang out on the hard highway, but even as they did so we could hear the fearful cry of John Jenkins, who lay imprisoned within the dark walls of the Witch's Tower.