o follow in the
knight's trail, and, if he were able, to fall upon him that very night in
camp, or to strike out a path of his own, and seek to place himself
between Sir Daniel and his destination.

Either scheme was open to serious objection, and Dick, who feared to
expose Joanna to the hazards of a fight, had not yet decided between them
when he reached the borders of the wood.

At this point Sir Daniel had turned a little to his left, and then
plunged straight under a grove of very lofty timber. His party had then
formed to a narrower front, in order to pass between the trees, and the
track was trod proportionally deeper in the snow. The eye followed it
under the leafless tracery of the oaks, running direct and narrow; the
trees stood over it, with knotty joints and the great, uplifted forest of
their boughs; there was no sound, whether of man or beast--not so much as
the stirring of a robin; and over the field of snow the winter sun lay
golden among netted shadows.

"How say ye," asked Dick of one of the men, "to follow straight on, or
strike across for Tunstall?"

"Sir Richard," replied the man-at-arms, "I would follow the line until
they scatter."

"Ye are, doubtless, right," returned Dick; "but we came right hastily
upon the errand, even as the time commanded. Here are no houses, neither
for food nor shelter, and by the morrow's dawn we shall know both cold
fingers and an empty belly. How say ye, lads? Will ye stand a pinch for
expedition's sake, or shall we turn by Holywood and sup with Mother
Church? The case being somewhat doubtful, I will drive no man; yet if ye
would suffer me to lead you, ye would choose the first."

The men answered, almost with one voice, that they would follow Sir
Richard where he would.

And Dick, setting spur to his horse, began once more to go forward.

The snow in the trail had been trodden very hard, and the pursuers had
thus a great advantage over the pursued. They pushed on, indeed, at a
round trot, two hundred hoofs beating alternately on the dull pavement of
the snow, and the jingle of weapons and the snorting of horses raising a
warlike noise along the arches of the silent wood.

Presently, the wide slot of the pursued came out upon the high road from
Holywood; it was there, for a moment, indistinguishable; and, where it
once more plunged into the unbeaten snow upon the farther side, Dick was
surprised to see it narrower and lighter trod. Plainly, profiting by