I shall accompany the force here.
"There is no time to be lost.

The duke's horse is to be at the door in a quarter of an hour, and it will not please him to be kept waiting.

You had better leave your spare horses, for the present.

I have already warned the escort." It was a short notice, but by the time named the four aides-de-camp were in their saddles, as were their soldier servants, for by this time Desmond's two friends had obtained servants from a dragoon regiment.

They were but just in time, for they had scarcely mounted when the duke came out, sprang into his saddle, and went off at a canter.
The distance was some fifty miles.