r adversary approaching round the
corner of the building.

'I thought I should tole out the mouse by that trick!' cried Festus
exultingly. Instead of going for a ladder, he had simply hidden himself
at the back to tempt her down.

Poor Anne was now desperate. The bank on which she stood was level with
the horse's back, and the creature seemed quiet as a lamb. With a
determination of which she was capable in emergencies, she seized the
rein, flung herself upon the sheepskin, and held on by the mane. The
amazed charger lifted his head, sniffed, wrenched his ears hither and
thither, and started off at a frightful speed across the down.

'O, my heart and limbs!' said Festus under his breath, as, thoroughly
alarmed, he gazed after her. 'She on Champion! She'll break her neck,
and I shall be tried for manslaughter, and disgrace will be brought upon
the name of Derriman!'

Champion continued to go at a stretch-gallop, but he did nothing worse.
Had he plunged or reared, Derriman's fears might have been verified, and
Anne have come with deadly force to the ground. But the course was good,
and in the horse's speed lay a comparative security. She was scarcely
shaken in her precarious half-horizontal position, though she was awed to
see the grass, loose stones, and other objects pass her eyes like strokes
whenever she opened them, which was only just for a second at intervals
of half a minute; and to feel how wildly the stirrups swung, and that
what struck her knee was the bucket of the carbine, and that it was a
pistol-holster which hurt her arm.

They quickly cleared the down, and Anne became conscious that the course
of the horse was homeward. As soon as the ground began to rise towards
the outer belt of upland which lay between her and the coast, Champion,
now panting and reeking with moisture, lessened his speed in sheer
weariness, and proceeded at a rapid jolting trot. Anne felt that she
could not hold on half so well; the gallop had been child's play compared
with this. They were in a lane, ascending to a ridge, and she made up
her mind for a fall. Over the ridge rose an animated spot, higher and
higher; it turned out to be the upper part of a man, and the man to be a
soldier. Such was Anne's attitude that she only got an occasional
glimpse of him; and, though she feared that he might be a Frenchman, she
feared the horse more than the enemy, as she had feared Festus more than
the horse. Anne had energy eno