I
thought that I was safe. And yet it was at that very instant
that the most terrible danger befell me. The lane divided, and I
took the smaller of the two divisions because it was the more
grassy and the easier for the horse's hoofs. Imagine my horror
when, riding through a gate, I found myself in a square of
stables and farm-buildings, with no way out save that by which I
had come! Ah, my friends, if my hair is snowy white, have I not
had enough to make it so?
To retreat was impossible. I could hear the thunder of the
Prussians' hoofs in the lane. I looked round me, and Nature has
blessed me with that quick eye which is the first of gifts to any
soldier, but most of all to a leader of cavalry. Between a long,
low line of stables and the farm-house there was a pig-sty. Its
front was made of bars of wood four feet high; the back was of
stone, higher than the front. What was beyond I could not tell.
The space between the front and the back was not more than a few
yards. It was a desperate venture, and yet I must take it.
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