A dead hush fell upon the whole assembly. Without a word the leader
of the charcoal burners strode away into the forest, and returned
in another minute with the two horses. Rupert and Hugh wrung the
hands of the peasants to whom they owed their lives, and leapt into
the saddle.
The leader took a torch and strode on ahead along the path, to show
them their way; and the crowd, who had hitherto stood still and
silent, broke into a shout of farewell and blessing.
It was some time before either Rupert or Hugh spoke. The emotion had been
too great for them. That terrible, half hour facing death--the sudden
revulsion at their wonderful deliverance--completely prostrated them,
and they felt exhausted and weak, as if after some great exertion. On
the previous occasions in which they had seen great danger together--at
the mill of Dettingheim, the fight on the Dykes, the scuttling of the
boat--they had been actively engaged. Their energies were fully
employed, and they had had no time to think. Now they had faced
death in all his terrors, but without the power of action; and both
felt they would far rather go through the three first risks again,
than endure five minutes of that terrible watching the fire burn up.
Hugh was the first to speak when, nearly an hour after starting,
they emerged from the wood into the plain at the foot of the hill.
"My mother used to say, Master Rupert, that curses, like chickens,
came home to roost, and surely we have proved it's the case with
blessings.
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