tween them and their advance guard.

Right and left and well ahead of him he could see their own outposts
galloping in toward the centre, but, strive how he would, he felt that
he must be overtaken long before he could reach the Hall.

"They will not kill me," he said to himself. "They would only make a
prisoner of me, unless some fierce Cavalier cuts me down."

"But I have saved them from a surprise," he continued; and he once more
tried to get a little speed out of the worn-out horse he rode.

It was a neck-or-nothing gallop, and over and over again Fred would have
been glad to change his mount, and leap on to the trained horse which
kept its place riderless by his side. But the enemy were thundering on
in full pursuit, and to have paused meant certain capture.

On they rode, the Cavaliers behind, with their blades flashing, and
their feathers streaming, and in the excitement of the race he could not
help thinking of the gallant appearance they made, as they spurred one
against the other in their reckless endeavour to overtake him.

He had forsaken the road, and turned on to the rough moorland, a more
difficult way, but he and his horse were more at home there, and he knew
how to avoid the roughest rocky portions, and the pieces of bog, while
there was always the hope that the pursuers might try to make some cut
to intercept him, and so find themselves foundered in the mire.

The race had lasted some minutes now, and the fugitive was in full hope
that the alarm had been spread by the inner line of vedettes, when a
bright thought flashed across his brain.

He glanced back, and could see about a dozen of the Cavaliers some forty
yards behind, and a few hundred yards behind them a couple of regiments.

"They will follow my pursuers," he argued; and as he came to that
conclusion, he drew his right rein, and bore off a little, making
straight for a deep hollow where the peat lay thick, and it was
impossible for a horse to cross.

If they followed him there, he could swerve off to the right again as he
reached the treacherous ground, and edge safely round it, while the main
body of his pursuers would in all probability plunge in.

"That would ensure their defeat," he said to himself, as in imagination
he saw the gallant regiments floundering saddle deep in the black,
half-liquid peat.

As he had hoped, so it seemed to be. His nearest pursuers turned off
after him, so did the main body, and, almost indifferent