Although he was so close to their heels, that they flung dust in his face, and small pebbles in the face of his rider, to the no slight inconvenience of the latter; although he "whighered" whenever he could spare breath, and uttered his "couag,--couag!" in reality calling them by name, it was "no go." "They would not stay.
They would not hear." And what did Hendrik during all this time?
Nothing--he could do nothing.

He could not stay the impetuous flight of his steed.

He dared not dismount.

He would have been hurled among sharp rocks, had he attempted such a thing.

His neck would have been broken.