ible for the most adroit equestrian to have got out of the
way. The path was not the two breadths of a horse; and to have wheeled
round, or even drawn back upon it, would have been a risk of itself.

They rode on, again congratulating themselves on their escape; but fancy
their consternation when they found themselves once more, and for the
third time, exposed to the very same danger! Again came a set of
bundles rolling and tearing down the slope, the billets rattling and
crackling as they rolled; again they went swishing by; again, by the
merest accident, did they miss the travellers, as they stood upon the
path.

Now, it might be supposed that the faggots were being launched all along
the ridge of the hill; and that, go which way they might, our party
would still be exposed to the danger. Not so. The bundles were all
rolled down at one particular place--where the slope was most favourable
for this purpose--but it was the zigzag path, which every now and then
obliqued across the line of the wood-avalanche, that had thus repeatedly
placed them in peril.

As they had yet to "quarter" the declivity several times before they
could reach the summit, they were more careful about approaching the
line of descent; and whenever they drew near it, they put their ponies
and mules to as good a speed as they could take out of them.

Though all four succeeded in reaching the summit in safety, it did not
hinder Pouchskin from pouring out his vial of wrath on the heads of the
offending woodcutters; and if they could have only understood his
Russian, they would have heard themselves called by a good many hard
names, and threatened with a second pursuit of Moscow. "Frog-eating
Frenchmen!" was the very mildest title which the ex-guardsman bestowed
upon them; but as his Russian was not translated, of course the phrase
fell harmless--else it would have undoubtedly been retaliated by a taunt
about "tallow."

The "izzard-hunter" swore at them to more purpose; for he, too, having
undergone equal risk with the rest of the party, had equally good
reasons for being angry; and giving utterance to a long string of
execrations with all the volubility of a Bearnais, he further threatened
them with the terrors of the law.

As the woodcutters, slightly stupefied by this unexpected attack,
submitted with tolerable grace, and said nothing in reply, the
izzard-hunter at length cooled down, and the party proceeded on their
way; Pouchskin, as he