g in the light, and so
distinct and near that I might have believed it no more than a stone's
throw off, though I knew it to be a full mile away. In the sudden
howling of the wind and the pelting of the rain I could hear nothing,
but I kept my aching eyes fixed in the direction of the fortress, and
over and over again I saw it leap out of darkness distinct and seeming
near, but quivering as if it were built of air and shaken by a wind. The
river, which flowed quite near me, began to take a roaring and ominous
tone, and I grew anxious lest the ford we meant to attempt three or four
miles below should have become impassable by the time we reached it.
To have passed through the village would have betrayed the fact that we
were going in an opposite direction to the one proposed, and might have
excited suspicion and immediate inquiry and pursuit. While the river
growled in a more and more menacing tone beside me, I began to wish
that our arrangements could be recast. We might easily have dared the
village, trusting to a half-hour's start and the chapter of accidents,
while now the swollen ford might delay us for whole hours. The plans
could not be changed, however, and there was nothing to be done but
wait.

I was wet to the skin, and dazed by the noises of the storm, and weary
with want of sleep, but every sense of fatigue vanished when I saw, by
the glare of the lightning between me and the fortress, the recognizable
figures of Brunow and Hinge on horseback. There was a third horseman
with them, and a led horse, and for a fraction of a second I could see
them all wildly prancing and leaping together, as if the beasts were
maddened by the storm, as no doubt they were. It seemed an hour--I have
known a day seem to go by more quickly many a time--when another flash
showed them nearer, like a dark group of statuary, the horses quivering
at the glare, and the heads of the riders bent against the wind and
rain. I ran forward, not daring to call, and found them again in the
lightning and lost them again in the dark half a dozen times. When at
last we met I hailed them in a guarded tone, though it was a marvel to
me that nobody was abroad at such an hour. Brunow replied boisterously,
and I mounted in the dark, being half doubled as I did so by a kick
from one of the plunging horses. I was fortunately too near for the full
effect of the blow, but the hoof took me at the hipbone, and for the
moment paralyzed me. I had much difficult