Yet, to my woe, I perceived him to be better mounted than I, and better acquainted with the roads.

So that every hour the distance betwixt us widened, till at last, when night fell, I could see him disappear, with a defiant wave of his hand, over a hill well-nigh a league ahead.
I know not how my wearied horse ever carried me that night; but when at sunrise I staggered into the yard of a wayside farm, he sunk dead-beat beneath me.

Therefore my vaunted boast not to quit my saddle till I had met my man went the way of other boasts, and came to the ground too.
The lad who came out of the barn to meet me told me that an hour since a soldier had gone through at a hand's pace bound for the coast, where already, it was said, the Spaniard had landed and was devouring the land like locusts.

Of women, either to-day or for many a day, he had seen or heard nothing.
My faithful beast was too feeble, even after a halt, to carry me farther, and I had perforce to proceed on foot.

My one hope was that ere long the Captain might find himself in a like plight.