22 THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 



clear, flung the lasso over the head of the wild horse. 

 The extremity of the cord was twisted round his own 

 body, and tightening as the animal struggled, the 

 compression became insupportable, and at length, in 

 spite of every effort to disengage himself, Garonwy 

 was dragged from his horse. 



" The affrighted merlin, finding himself manacled 

 by the rope, darted off with all the speed of which 

 he was capable, dragging poor Garonwy over the 

 rocky ground and stunted brushwood. This occurred 

 at some distance from the men. They called in their 

 dogs that the speed of the merlin might not be in- 

 creased ; but ere they could arrive at the spot at 

 which the accident happened, the horse and the 

 man had vanished. Whether the sufferings of the 

 hunter were protracted, or he was dashed against a 

 rock at the commencement of the horrible race, was 

 never known ; but the wild animal, frenzied and 

 blinded by terror, rushed over a beetling cliff, at a 

 considerable distance, overhanging the sea-shore, and 

 the hunter and the horse were found at the bottom, 

 a misshapen semblance of what they had been when 

 living." 



