All this time I had been on the meadow-land, which was
intersected in this part by broad ditches. Some of them could
not have been less than from fourteen to fifteen feet, and my
heart was in my mouth as I went at each of them, for a slip would
have been my ruin.
But whoever selected the Emperor's horses had done his work well.
The creature, save when it balked on the bank of the Sambre,
never failed me for an instant.
We cleared everything in one stride. And yet we could not shake
off! those infernal Prussians. As I left each water-course
behind me I looked back with renewed hope; but it was only to see
Stein on his white-legged chestnut flying over it as lightly as I
had done myself. He was my enemy, but I honoured him for the way
in which he carried himself that day.
Again and again I measured the distance which separated him from
the next horseman. I had the idea that I might turn and cut him
down, as I had the Hussar, before his comrade could come to his
help. But the others had closed up and ere not far behind.
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