320 COACHING DAYS AND COACHING WAYS 



deep-channelled Don, Bess began to manifest some slight 

 symptoms of distress. This was bad enough ; but it " was 

 now that gray and grimly hour ere one flicker of orange 

 or rose has gemmed the East, and when unwearying 

 Nature herself seems to snatch brief repose/' Under 

 such a depressing condition of affairs, I cannot wonder 

 for my part, that Bess's slight symptoms of distress were 

 communicated to her master, and that our gallant high- 

 wayman began to feel extremely low in his mind. 

 " Hope forsook him, the reins also forsook his chilled 

 fingers, his eyes, irritated by the keen atmosphere, 

 hardly enabled him to distinguish surrounding objects," 

 — and it was owing probably to this latter circumstance 

 that Bess suddenly floundered and fell, throwing her 

 master over her head. Turpin instantly recovered himself. 



But his practised eye soon told him that Black Bess 

 was in a parlous plight. Her large eyes glared wildly. 

 " She won't go much further," said Turpin, " and I must 

 give it up ! What ! . . . give up the race just when it's 

 won ? . . . No ! . . .That can't be. . . Ha ! Well thought 

 on ! " — with which he drew from his pocket the inevitable 

 phial, without which romances could never be brought to 

 their end. " Raising the mare's head upon his shoulder, 

 he poured the contents of the bottle down her throat "— 

 and lo ! in the twinkling of an eye he was once more at a 

 gallant pace traversing the banks of the Don and skirt- 

 ing the fields of flax that bound its sides ! 



Snaith was soon passed, and our hero was well on the 

 road to Selby, when dawn put in an appearance with the 

 usual accompaniments of sparrows twittering, hares 

 running across the path, and mists rising from the earth. 

 It became extremely foggy, and Turpin, I am sorry to 

 say, was so weak as to be influenced by the climate and 

 became foggy too. 



He became aware of another horseman riding by his 

 side. " It was impossible to discern the features of the 

 rider ; but his figure in the mist seemed gigantic, neither 

 was the colour of his steed distinguishable." And Dick 



