"Then let these men follow me," I cried. "Simon will tell you, dear sir, that I can give and take the word of command. Christopher has no wit to handle them. Send the six best mounted, and let them come up with me if they can, and I will give Roan Charley to him that reaches Royston neck and neck with me."

And if they answered me again I heard it not, for Charley was away, taking in his stride the fence of the paddock that lies behind the stable; and although that way did mean a leap-out at a point where the fence was high, with the ground falling sharply on the other side, we did the second jump as well as we had done the first, and so gained three hundred yards on the pursuing troop, whom I already heard pounding after me with many a hearty cry and much rattling of harness.

CHAPTER XII

Two years after it happened my husband and I did ride over the same course of my crow's flight from Drayton Manor to Royston Chase. And it was matter of some surprise to me, and of more to Ned, ambling in cold blood over the fields and viewing the leaps that I and Roan Charley did that day take in company, that I had not only the courage for such feats but also the fortune to come through it all without misadventure.

I must indeed suppose that I did myself choose my path and guide in it the gallant little horse; but, were I to trust merely to the memory of feeling, I should believe that I sat in the saddle like one in a dream, while Charley, with the inward knowledge of some homing pigeon, galloped straight for the place where lay all my hopes and fears. 'T was but twice that I had any sight of my escort—first, turning in my seat as Charley reached the level of the meadow-land below the hill that falls away from the home paddock, I beheld them, close massed in a body, rounding the bend of the fence away to the right above me, and just about commencing the descent; and once again, after the roan had leaped into, and well-nigh miraculously scrambled out of, an ugly and broken gully that lies near half-way between Royston and my father's house. For as Charley heaved his body with a tearing, scratching, and clinging most wondrous cat-like upon the safe ground of the further bank, I looked back once more and spied them bearing off to the left for lower ground and easier passage; but by this they were a straggling rout covering much ground, so hardly already had the pace and distance with the differing weight of riders told upon the various mettle of the horses. Indeed, the next two miles did tell not a little even upon Charley, being a rising stretch of ploughed land in condition very grievous for his smallness of hoof; but coming thereafter to grass, he was mightily refreshed, and cleared two fences and a little bank of earth with bushes atop in his old gay and light-hearted manner.

And after this we were not long in coming to the road, which being in good condition for the season and weather that it was we made the remaining miles at a very pretty pace.

Now the front of the house at Royston Chase stands but a little back from the road, behind great gates of wrought iron, hung upon mighty pillars of carved stone. These stood wide as I galloped up, but the way was barred by two soldiers, of mien immovable as the brazen gates of Gaza. By their black cloaks of fur I knew them to be of that Swedish Regiment of Horse in which Captain Royston held His Highness's commission. They were, however, dismounted for sentry duty—an office for which I could but think them ill chosen when I perceived that not one word of the English language did they understand, and would neither let me pass through the archway into the inner court of the house, nor, when I had come to the purpose of moving further down the road and leaping both hedge and ditch into the orchard, would they let me depart. For one of them did lay a great hand on Charley's bridle, saying something to his fellow in a manner easy of comprehension, though the words were to me without meaning. And I truly believe that I was in that moment very near to discovery of my sex. For answer to his jest I struck the fellow across the face with my loose gauntlet, at the same time with great quickness using both spur and rein, so that Roan Charley in a single movement reared himself almost upright and swerved aside. This, coming right upon the blow he had received, caused the trooper to loose my rein; which before the other could seize we were away at the best pace we could make.

Now, some three hundred yards down the road seemed the lowest part of the bank and hedge enclosing the little field that here divides the beautiful orchard of Royston Chase from the highroad. But even at this point, I thought, the leap was hard for a horse that had already done so much; wherefore I had determined to pass on to that little cross lane that leads from the road to the gate at the lower end of the orchard. But even as I was so resolving I heard behind me the cries and hoofs of mounted pursuers, and in front, coming from the very lane I had purposed using, a patrol of three men of this same Swedish regiment. And so jump we must, or altogether fail, it seemed, in that for which we had ridden so far and so fast. Charley, too, seemed to understand, and for a few strides we both steadied ourselves, taking deep breaths of air and watching the hedge for a thin spot. And I have always thought 't was Charley that found it—a spot where the growth of bramble on the bank's top was so scarce as to let the narrow edge of the earth mound be clearly seen. But whether the will were mine or his, the doing of the matter was Charley's alone, and very well, for a tired horse, was it done. Knowing he could not with sureness clear both ditch and bank in a single spring, and feeling that his mistress did leave the manner of this last and most difficult passage of his hard run wholly to his clever legs and wiser head, my little horse, as if he had been twice the age he was, most soberly took his leap from the roadside, and landed with his four hoofs bunched cat-like in a cluster on the summit of the bank in that place where I have said the growth of brush and bramble was thin. Here, for the space of two heart-beats, he poised himself, in which time he judged so well both his own flagging powers and the wider and unexpected ditch on the further side, that he was able with a second leap to land us safely and gently beyond it on the rain-softened earth of the ploughed field.

Now, even in the brief moment when Charley swayed on the top of the bank and gathered himself for that second spring, I had time (so swiftly works the mind in the tension of danger to be forestalled) to note two things: that my pursuers on their heavy chargers had balked the leap; and that in the orchard, across the little ploughed field and beyond the low fence, were many people, walking to and fro among the fruit trees; and I knew from their carriage, from the sheen of armor, and the gay colors of the various habits, that they were no common soldiers; and as Charley foundered wearily but with great courage through the heavy plough my heart was high with the thought that fortune had brought me the straight road to my end. And then we reached the fence, which proved higher than I had thought; yet did my brave nag pass that too, very cleverly bursting with his knees the highest rail, which he was too tired to overtop, and though he took the grass among the trees beyond with a little stumble, it was his first and last mistake, from which quickly recovering, and, as it seemed, well aware that his work was done, he stood like an image of stone, with forelegs stretched in front and nose near down to his knees.