d that he would fall
off. He could do nothing, however, to help him, for he himself was
sitting at one end of the seat while the sailor was upon the other,
the driver being between them. In the mean time the sun gradually went
down and the twilight came on, and as the shadows extended themselves
slowly over the landscape, Marco began to find riding outside less
pleasant than it had been before, and he thought that, on the whole,
he should be very glad when the time arrived for him to get into the
coach again, with his cousin.

At length they came to a bridge, covered with planks, which led across
a small stream. It was in rather a solitary place, with woods on each
side of the road. Beyond the bridge there was a level piece of road
for a short distance, and then a gentle ascent, with a farmhouse near
the top of it, on the right hand side of the road. At the end of the
bridge, between the planks and the ground beyond them, there was a
jolt, caused by the rotting away of a log which had been imbedded in
the ground at the beginning of the planking. As it was rather dark,
on account of the shade of the trees, the driver did not observe this
jolt, and he was just beginning to put his horses to the trot, as they
were leaving the bridge, when the forward wheels struck down heavily
into the hollow, giving the front of the coach a sudden pitch forward
and downward. Marco grasped the iron bar at his end of the seat, and
saved himself; and the driver, who was habitually on his guard, had
his feet so braced against the fender before him, that he would not
have fallen. But the poor sailor, entirely unprepared for the shock,
and perhaps unable to resist it if he had been prepared, pitched
forward, lost his hold, went over the fender, and was tumbling down,
as the driver had predicted, head foremost, under the horses' heels.
The driver seized hold of him with one hand, but finding this
insufficient dropped his reins and tried to grasp him with both. In
doing it, however, he lost his own balance and went over too. He, of
course, let go of the sailor, when he found that he was going himself.
The sailor fell heavily and helplessly between the pole and the side
of one of the horses, to the ground. The driver followed. He seized
the pole with one hand, but was too late to save himself entirely,
and thinking there was danger of being dragged, and finding that the
horses were springing forward in a fright, he let himself drop through
to the