away.

"Can you lend me a horse, Cosin?"

"Yes, and go with you myself."

He ordered two horses to be ready in half-an-hour, and himself went round
to three or four neighbours, and invited them to join the party, telling
them, of course, the object of their sudden departure. Not one of them
hesitated a moment, for Villemet was popular among them; and the farmers
of Yaxley were, at that time, manly, steady, and obliging fellows, in no
wise ashamed to be seen in their place in the house of God. And the race
is happily not extinct.

"Shall we take pistols?"

"Yes. But don't use them if you can possibly help it."

They cantered off, a party of six, all firm in the saddle, and passed the
barracks without attracting much attention, as it was dark.

The difficulty was to know what road Villemet had taken, but they all
agreed they must chance it, and go straight away to Spalding. Thither
they galloped as fast as horses' legs could carry them, arriving there
soon after midnight.

A belated hostler at one of the inns was asked whether he had seen a
horseman, or horsemen, pass through the town lately. He scratched his
head and meditated.

"Aye, to be sure I have. Leastways, one. What a memory I have! Why I
had my lantern with me, and took a good look at him. By George, his
horse was steaming. But it was a poor creature, and would sweat, I
should think, if he only whisked his tail twice, only he'd got none."

"What a picture of a screw!" said one of the party, laughing heartily
with the rest.

"Just what we wanted," said Tournier; and giving the man a tip, they all
went off again.

They had gone but a few miles when they heard the sound of horse's feet
in front of them. They halted and listened. It was only one horse, and
they could distinguish the voice of the rider urging the poor beast
along, with not very gentle thuds of a whip.

"It is Villemet's voice," said Tournier: "and he evidently hears us
coming."

And now was the critical time. They wanted to secure without hurting
him; and they also wanted to save him from the after misery of having
hurt, or perhaps killed, one of them. So they broke into a canter, and,
as they had arranged beforehand, began to sing at the top of their voices
a jolly uproarious huntman's song; and passing Villemet (who took them
for roysterers going home,) on the right and left, reined up their
horses, the foremost riders seizing the bridle, and the next two pointing
t