Just then the desperate galloping of a horse was heard upon the road and then upon the pavement by the lawn; but most horrible of all was the fall and sighing of the animal, which seemed to drop all at once at the door of the middle tower.

A convulsion like that which a thunderbolt might produce shook the spectators when Laurence, the trailing of whose riding-habit announced her coming, entered the room.
The servants hastily formed into two lines to let her pass.
In spite of her rapid ride, the girl had felt the full anguish the discovery of the conspiracy must needs cause her.

All her hopes were overthrown! she had galloped through ruins as her thoughts turned to the necessity of submission to the Consular government.

Were it not for the danger which threatened the four gentlemen, and which served as a tonic to conquer her weariness and her despair, she would have dropped asleep on the way.

The mare was almost killed in her haste to reach the chateau, and stand between her cousins and death.