y under the hedge, and so nearly escaped murder! If I am right,
it was, however, the mildest of the ruffians; the one who counselled his
comrades against despatching me."

The Corporal shuddered.

"Pray, Sir!" said he, after a moment's pause, "do see if your pistols
are primed--so--so. 'Tis not out o' nature that the man may have some
'complices hereabout, and may think to way-lay us. The old Gipsy,
too, what a face she had! depend on it, they are two of a
trade--augh!--bother!--whaugh!"

And the Corporal grunted his most significant grunt.

"It is not at all unlikely, Bunting; and as we are now not far from
Knaresbro', it will be prudent to ride on as fast as our horses will
allow us. Keep up alongside."

"Certainly--I'll purtect your honour," said the Corporal, getting on
that side where the hedge being thinnest, an ambush was less likely to
be laid. "I care more for your honour's safety than my own, or what a
brute I should be--augh!"

The master and man had trotted on for some little distance, when they
perceived a dark object moving along by the grass on the side of the
road. The Corporal's hair bristled--he uttered an oath, which by him was
always intended for a prayer. Walter felt his breath grow a little
thick as he watched the motions of the object so imperfectly beheld;
presently, however, it grew into a man on horseback, trotting very
slowly along the grass; and as they now neared him, they recognised the
rider they had just seen, whom they might have imagined, from the pace
at which he left them before, to have been considerably a-head of them.

The horseman turned round as he saw them.

"Pray, gentlemen," said he, in a tone of great and evident anxiety, "how
far is it to Knaresbro'?"

"Don't answer him, your honour!" whispered the Corporal.

"Probably," replied Walter, unheeding this advice, "you know this
road better than we do. It cannot however be above three or four miles
hence."

"Thank you, Sir,--it is long since I have been in these parts. I used to
know the country, but they have made new roads and strange enclosures,
and I now scarcely recognise any thing familiar. Curse on this brute!
curse on it, I say!" repeated the horseman through his ground teeth in
a tone of angry vehemence, "I never wanted to ride so quick before,
and the beast has fallen as lame as a tree. This comes of trying to go
faster than other folks.--Sir, are you a father?"

This abrupt question, which was uttered in