'Wounded and suffering acutely,' said Sir John. 'His groans - '
There fell from the lady's lips an oath so potent that, in smoother
hours, it would have made her hearers jump. She ran to her horse,
scrambled to the saddle, and, yet half seated, dashed down the road
at full gallop. The groom, after a pause of wonder, followed her.
The rush of her impetuous passage almost scared the carriage horses
over the verge of the steep hill; and still she clattered further,
and the crags echoed to her flight, and still the groom flogged
vainly in pursuit of her. At the fourth corner, a woman trailing
slowly up leaped back with a cry and escaped death by a hand's-
breadth. But the Countess wasted neither glance nor thought upon
the incident. Out and in, about the bluffs of the mountain wall,
she fled, loose-reined, and still the groom toiled in her pursuit.
'A most impulsive lady!' said Sir John. 'Who would have thought she
cared for him?' And before the words were uttered, he was
struggling in the Prince's grasp.
'My wife! the Princess? What of her?'
'She is down the road,' he gasped. 'I left her twenty minutes
back.'
And next moment, the choked author stood alone, and the Prince on
foot was racing down the hill behind the Countess.
CHAPTER IV - BABES IN THE WOOD
WHILE the feet of the Prince continued to run swiftly, his heart,
which had at first by far outstripped his running, soon began to
linger and hang back.
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