As for me, I am over-young to break my neck and be left on the mountain-side to fatten crows.

I shall follow at my leisure." "Gesu!" he cried, through chattering teeth.

"Are you a coward, then ?" The taunt would have angered me had his condition been other than it was; but coming from one so possessed of the devil of terror, it did no more than provoke my mirth.
"Come on, then, valiant runagate," I laughed at him.
And on we went, our horses now plunging, now sliding down yard upon yard of moving snow, snorting and trembling, more reasoning far than these rational animals that bestrode them.

Twice did it chance that a man was flung from his saddle, yet I know not what prayers Madonna may have been uttering in her litter, to obtain for us the miracle of reaching the plain with never so much as a broken bone.
Thus far had we come, but no farther, it seemed, was it possible to go.
The horses, which by dint of slipping and sliding had encompassed the descent at a good pace, were so winded that we could get no more than an amble out of them, saving mine, which was tolerably fresh.
At this a new terror assailed the timorous Giacopo.

His head was ever turned to look behind--unfailing index of a frightened spirit; his eyes were ever on the crest of the hills, expecting at every moment to behold the flash of the pursuers' steel.