There was a ring for fastening bridles at the door of the inn, and the groom tied the horse there while he entered the house.  In an instant I had seen the chance which Fate had brought to me.  Were I in that saddle I should be better off than when I started.  Even Voltigeur could not compare with this magnificent creature.  To think is to act with me.  In one instant I was down the ladder and at the door of the stable.  The next I was out and the bridle was in my hand.  I bounded into the saddle.  Somebody, the master or the man, shouted wildly behind me.  What cared I for his shouts!  I touched the horse with my spurs, and he bounded forward with such a spring that only a rider like myself could have sat him.  I gave him his head and let him go—­it did not matter to me where, so long as we left this inn far behind us.  He thundered away across the vineyards, and in a very few minutes I had placed miles between myself and my pursuers.  They could no longer tell, in that wild country, in which direction I had gone.  I knew that I was safe, and so, riding to the top of a small hill, I drew my pencil and note-book from my pocket and proceeded to make plans of those camps which I could see, and to draw the outline of the country.

He was a dear creature upon whom I sat, but it was not easy to draw upon his back, for every now and then his two ears would cock, and he would start and quiver with impatience.  At first I could not understand this trick of his, but soon I observed that he only did it when a peculiar noise—­“yoy, yoy, yoy”—­came from somewhere among the oak woods beneath us.  And then suddenly this strange cry changed into a most terrible screaming, with the frantic blowing of a horn.  Instantly he went mad—­ this horse.  His eyes blazed.  His mane bristled.  He bounded from the earth and bounded again, twisting and turning in a frenzy.  My pencil flew one way and my notebook another.  And then, as I looked down into the valley, an extraordinary sight met my eyes.  The hunt was streaming down it.  The fox I could not see, but the dogs were in full cry, their noses down, their tails up, so close together that they might have been one great yellow and white moving carpet.  And behind them rode the horsemen—­my faith, what a sight!  Consider every type which a great army could show:  some in hunting dress, but the most in uniforms; blue dragoons, red dragoons, red-trousered hussars, green riflemen, artillerymen, gold-slashed lancers, and most of all red, red, red, for the infantry officers ride as hard as the cavalry.  Such a crowd, some well mounted, some ill, but all flying along as best they might, the subaltern as good as the general, jostling and pushing, spurring and driving, with every thought thrown to the winds save that they should have the blood of this absurd fox!  Truly, they are an extraordinary people, the English!