"How say ye," asked Dick of one of the men, "to follow straight on,
or strike across for Tunstall?"
"Sir Richard," replied the man-at-arms, "I would follow the line
until they scatter."
"Ye are, doubtless, right," returned Dick; "but we came right
hastily upon the errand, even as the time commanded. Here are no
houses, neither for food nor shelter, and by the morrow's dawn we
shall know both cold fingers and an empty belly. How say ye, lads?
Will ye stand a pinch for expedition's sake, or shall we turn by
Holywood and sup with Mother Church? The case being somewhat
doubtful, I will drive no man; yet if ye would suffer me to lead
you, ye would choose the first."
The men answered, almost with one voice, that they would follow Sir
Richard where he would.
And Dick, setting spur to his horse, began once more to go forward.
The snow in the trail had been trodden very hard, and the pursuers
had thus a great advantage over the pursued. They pushed on,
indeed, at a round trot, two hundred hoofs beating alternately on
the dull pavement of the snow, and the jingle of weapons and the
snorting of horses raising a warlike noise along the arches of the
silent wood.
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