e look of it, and proposed
to ride back again, and round by way of Simonsbath, where the stream is
smaller. But Stickles would not have it so, and dashing into the river,
swam his horse for the bridge, and gained it with some little trouble;
and there he found the water not more than up to his horse's knees
perhaps. On the crown of the bridge he turned his horse to watch the
trooper's passage, and to help him with directions; when suddenly he saw
him fall headlong into the torrent, and heard the report of a gun from
behind, and felt a shock to his own body, such as lifted him out of
the saddle. Turning round he beheld three men, risen up from behind the
hedge on one side of his onward road, two of them ready to load again,
and one with his gun unfired, waiting to get good aim at him. Then
Jeremy did a gallant thing, for which I doubt whether I should have had
the presence of mind in danger. He saw that to swim his horse back again
would be almost certain death; as affording such a target, where even
a wound must be fatal. Therefore he struck the spurs into the nag, and
rode through the water straight at the man who was pointing the long gun
at him. If the horse had been carried off his legs, there must have been
an end of Jeremy; for the other men were getting ready to have another
shot at him. But luckily the horse galloped right on without any need
for swimming, being himself excited, no doubt, by all he had seen and
heard of it. And Jeremy lay almost flat on his neck, so as to give
little space for good aim, with the mane tossing wildly in front of him.
Now if that young fellow with the gun had his brains as ready as his
flint was, he would have shot the horse at once, and then had Stickles
at his mercy; but instead of that he let fly at the man, and missed him
altogether, being scared perhaps by the pistol which Jeremy showed him
the mouth of. And galloping by at full speed, Master Stickles tried to
leave his mark behind him, for he changed the aim of his pistol to the
biggest man, who was loading his gun and cursing like ten cannons. But
the pistol missed fire, no doubt from the flood which had gurgled in
over the holsters; and Jeremy seeing three horses tethered at a gate
just up the hill, knew that he had not yet escaped, but had more of
danger behind him. He tried his other great pistol at one of the
horses tethered there, so as to lessen (if possible) the number of his
pursuers. But the powder again failed him; a