Watching their progress, and under the guidance of
the young maiden, who seemed endued with a courage and conduct worthy of
more experience and a stronger sex, the youth emerged from his place of
precarious and uncomfortable concealment, and descended to the lower
floor. A few moments sufficed to throw the saddle upon his steed,
without arousing the sable groom; and having brought him under the
shadow of a tree at some little distance from the house, he found no
further obstruction in the way of his safe and sudden flight. He had
fastened the door of his chamber on leaving it, with much more caution
than upon retiring for the night; and having withdrawn the key, which he
now hurled into the woods, he felt assured that, unless the assassins
had other than the common modes of entry, he should gain a little time
from the delay they would experience from this interruption; and this
interval, returning to the doorway, he employed in acknowledgments which
were well due to the young and trembling woman who stood beside him.
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