The girls fled for their lives.

It was a question of which could reach the railings first, they or the dangerous brute whose huge hoofs thundered behind them.

Ingred, who was the taller and the stronger of the two, seized Bess by the hand and literally dragged her along.

Together they tumbled over the fence somehow and rolled down the bank into the safe shelter of some gorse bushes.

For a moment they were afraid the mare would leap after them, but the height of the rails balked her; apparently she was satisfied with routing the enemy and returned across the field to her foal.