hen Fresnoy, slightly drawing rein, turned
in his saddle and looked back. The next moment he cried, 'Hallo! what is
this? Those fellows are not following us, are they?'

I turned sharply to look. At that moment, without falter or warning, the
bay horse went down under me as if shot dead, throwing me half a dozen
yards over its head; and that so suddenly that I had no time to raise my
arms, but, falling heavily on my head and shoulder, lost consciousness.

I have had many falls, but no other to vie with that in utter
unexpectedness. When I recovered my senses I found myself leaning, giddy
and sick, against the bole of an old thorn-tree. Fresnoy and Matthew
supported me on either side, and asked me how I found myself; while the
other three men, their forms black against the stormy evening sky, sat
their horses a few paces in front of me. I was too much dazed at first
to see more, and this only in a mechanical fashion; but gradually, my
brain grew clearer, and I advanced from wondering who the strangers
round me were to recognising them, and finally to remembering what had
happened to me.

'Is the horse hurt?' I muttered as soon as I could speak.

'Not a whit,' Fresnoy answered, chuckling, or I was much mistaken. 'I am
afraid you came off the worse of the two, captain.'

He exchanged a look with the men on horseback as he spoke, and in a dull
fashion I fancied I saw them smile. One even laughed, and another turned
in his saddle as if to hide his face. I had a vague general sense that
there was some joke on foot in which I had no part. But I was too much
shaken at the moment to be curious, and gratefully accepted the offer of
one, of the men to fetch me a little water. While he was away the rest
stood round me, the same look of ill-concealed drollery on their faces.
Fresnoy alone talked, speaking volubly of the accident, pouring out
expressions of sympathy and cursing the road, the horse, and the wintry
light until the water came; when, much refreshed by the draught, I
managed to climb to the Cid's saddle and plod slowly onwards with them.

'A bad beginning,' Fresnoy said presently, stealing a sly glance at
me as we jogged along side by side, Chize half a league before us, and
darkness not far off.

By this time, however, I was myself again, save for a little humming is
the head, and, shrugging my shoulders, I told him so. 'All's well that
ends well,' I added. 'Not that it was a pleasant fall, or that I wish to
have