y out of
our course, and it led to a wide plowland, freshly turned but
hard-frozen, in the furrows of which our horses boggled a good deal.
We pushed across it, holding our line in a long slant back towards
the loom of the tall hedge that (as we agreed) marked the course of
the highway. On the far side of the plow this hedge ran down hill
towards us and more sharply than I had reckoned: yet before regaining
it we had to cross another pasture. I was the surer that this must
be the road because of a light that shone straight ahead of us, which
I took to be the direction of Holibourne village. I should mention,
too, that on our left all the way the ground descended in an easy
slope, but the frost had bound the little river running below and
held it silent.

Sure enough on the far side of the pasture we came to a gate, and
Shackell, who was leading, announced that the high-road lay beyond.
But a minute later he called to us that this could not be: it was too
narrow, a mere lane in fact; and with that, as we pressed up to the
gate, the mischief happened.

The cause of it was a poor starved jackass, that had been sheltering
himself under the lee of the hedge, and now, as we all but trampled
him, heaved himself out of the shadow with a bray of terror.
The sound, bursting upon us at close quarters, was as a stone hurled
into a pool. Round went our horses' rumps, and up went heels and
hoofs. I heard Little Owens cry aloud that his nose was broken.
'Catch hold of the pack-beasts!' I shouted, as they shied back
upon us, and two were caught and held fast--I know not by whom.
The third, the resty one, springing backwards past me, almost on his
haunches, jerked his halter wide of my clutch, and in a moment was
galloping full flight down the slope.

With a call to the others to stand steady and wait for me, I wheeled
my mare about and rode off in chase, to round him up. The almost
total darkness made this hunting mighty unpleasant; but I knew that,
bating the chance of being flung by a mole-hill, I had my gentleman
safe enough. For, to begin with, he must soon find the pace irksome,
with two firkin casks jolting against his ribs; and at the foot of
the descent the river would surely head him off. To be sure it was
frozen hard and he might have crossed it dry-footed, but the alders
on the bank frighted him back, and presently I had him penned in an
angle between hedge and stream. Here, as I slowed up and advanced to
coax