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golden among netted shadows.
"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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