The driver followed.

He seized the pole with one hand, but was too late to save himself entirely, and thinking there was danger of being dragged, and finding that the horses were springing forward in a fright, he let himself drop through to the ground also.

The coach passed over them in a moment, as the horses cantered on.
All this passed in an instant, and Marco, before he had a moment's time for reflection, found himself alone on his seat,--the driver run over and perhaps killed, and the horses cantering away, with the reins dangling about their heels.

The first impulse, in such a case, would be to scream aloud, in terror,--which would have only made the horses run the faster.

But Marco was not very easily frightened; at least, he was not easily made crazy by fright.