He now grappled with me,strange to say,without uttering any cry of alarm;being a very powerful man,and if anything rather heavier and more strongly built than I,he succeeded in drawing me with him to the ground.We fell together with a heavy crash,tugging and straining in what we were both conscious was a mortal struggle.At length I succeeded in getting over him,and struck him twice more in the face;still he struggled with an energy which nothing but the tremendous stake at issue could have sustained.
I succeeded again in inflicting several more wounds upon him,any one of which might have been mortal.While thus contending he clutched his hands about my throat,so firmly that I felt the blood swelling the veins of my temples and face almost to bursting.Again and again Istruck the weapon deep into his face and throat,but life seemed to adhere in him with an almost INSECT tenacity.
My sight now nearly failed,my senses almost forsook me;I felt upon the point of suffocation when,with one desperate effort,I struck him another and a last blow in the face.The weapon which I wielded had lighted upon the eye,and the point penetrated the brain;the body quivered under me,the deadly grasp relaxed,and Oliver lay upon the ground a corpse!
As I arose and shook the weapon and the bloody cloth from my hand,the moon which he had foretold I should never see rise,shone bright and broad into the room,and disclosed,with ghastly distinctness,the mangled features of the dead soldier;the mouth,full of clotting blood and broken teeth,lay open;the eye,close by whose lid the fatal wound had been inflicted,was not,as might have been expected,bathed in blood,but had started forth nearly from the socket,and gave to the face,by its fearful unlikeness to the other glazing orb,a leer more hideous and unearthly than fancy ever saw.The wig,with all its rich curls,had fallen with the hat to the floor,leaving the shorn head exposed,and in many places marked by the recent struggle;the rich lace cravat was drenched in blood,and the gay uniform in many places soiled with the same.
It is hard to say,with what feelings I
looked upon the unsightly and revolting mass which had so lately been a living and a comely man.I had not any time,however,to spare for reflection;the deed was done--the responsibility was upon me,and all was registered in the book of that God who judges rightly.
With eager haste I removed from the body such of the military accoutrements as were necessary for the purpose of my disguise.I buckled on the sword,drew off the military boots,and donned them myself,placed the brigadier wig and cocked hat upon my head,threw on the cloak,drew it up about my face,and proceeded,with the papers which I found as the soldier had foretold me,and the key of the outer lobby,to the door of the guard-room;this I opened,and with a firm and rapid tread walked through the officers,who rose as I entered,and passed without question or interruption to the street-door.Here I was met by the grim-looking corporal,Hewson,who,saluting me,said:
'How soon,captain,shall the file be drawn out and the prisoner despatched?'
'In half an hour,'I replied,without raising my voice.
The man again saluted,and in two steps I reached the soldier who held the two horses,as he had intimated.
'Is all right?'said he,eagerly.
'Ay,'said I,'which horse am I to mount?'
He satisfied me upon this point,and I
threw myself into the saddle;the soldier mounted his horse,and dashing the spurs into the flanks of the animal which Ibestrode,we thundered along the narrow bridge.At the far extremity a sentinel,as we approached,called out,'Who goes there?
stand,and give the word!'Heedless of the interruption,with my heart bounding with excitement,I dashed on,as did also the soldier who accompanied me.
'Stand,or I fire!give the word!'cried the sentry.
'God save the king,and to hell with the prince!'shouted I,flinging the cocked hat in his face as I galloped by.
The response was the sharp report of a carbine,accompanied by the whiz of a bullet,which passed directly between me and my comrade,now riding beside me.
'Hurrah!'I shouted;'try it again,my boy.'
And away we went at a gallop,which bid fair to distance anything like pursuit.
Never was spur more needed,however,for soon the clatter of horses'hoofs,in full speed,crossing the bridge,came sharp and clear through the stillness of the night.
Away we went,with our pursuers close behind;one mile was passed,another nearly completed.The moon now shone forth,and,turning in the saddle,Ilooked back upon the road we had passed.
One trooper had headed the rest,and was within a hundred yards of us.
I saw the fellow throw himself from his horse upon the ground.
I knew his object,and said to my comrade:
'Lower your body--lie flat over the saddle;the fellow is going to fire.'
I had hardly spoken when the report of a carbine startled the echoes,and the ball,striking the hind leg of my companion's horse,the poor animal fell headlong upon the road,throwing his rider head-foremost over the saddle.
My first impulse was to stop and share whatever fate might await my comrade;but my second and wiser one was to spur on,and save myself and my despatch.
I rode on at a gallop,turning to observe my comrade's fate.I saw his pursuer,having remounted,ride rapidly up to him,and,on reaching the spot where the man and horse lay,rein in and dismount.
He was hardly upon the ground,when my companion shot him dead with one of the holster-pistols which he had drawn from the pipe;and,leaping nimbly over a ditch at the side of the road,he was soon lost among the ditches and thorn-bushes which covered that part of the country.
