Chapter 30

CHAPTER V - NIGHT IN THE WOODS: ALICIA RISINGHAM

It was almost certain that Sir Daniel had made for the Moat House;
but, considering the heavy snow, the lateness of the hour, and the
necessity under which he would lie of avoiding the few roads and
striking across the wood, it was equally certain that he could not
hope to reach it ere the morrow.

There were two courses open to Dick; either to continue to follow
in the knight's trail, and, if he were able, to fall upon him that
very night in camp, or to strike out a path of his own, and seek to
place himself between Sir Daniel and his destination.

Either scheme was open to serious objection, and Dick, who feared
to expose Joanna to the hazards of a fight, had not yet decided
between them when he reached the borders of the wood.

At this point Sir Daniel had turned a little to his left, and then
plunged straight under a grove of very lofty timber. His party had
then formed to a narrower front, in order to pass between the
trees, and the track was trod proportionally deeper in the snow.
The eye followed it under the leafless tracery of the oaks, running
direct and narrow; the trees stood over it, with knotty joints and
the great, uplifted forest of their boughs; there was no sound,
whether of man or beast - not so much as the stirring of a robin;
and over the field of snow the winter sun lay golden among netted
shadows.

"How say ye," asked Dick of one of the men, "to follow straight on,
or strike across for Tunstall?"

"Sir Richard," replied the man-at-arms, "I would follow the line
until they scatter."

"Ye are, doubtless, right," returned Dick; "but we came right
hastily upon the errand, even as the time commanded. Here are no
houses, neither for food nor shelter, and by the morrow's dawn we
shall know both cold fingers and an empty belly. How say ye, lads?
Will ye stand a pinch for expedition's sake, or shall we turn by
Holywood and sup with Mother Church? The case being somewhat
doubtful, I will drive no man; yet if ye would suffer me to lead
you, ye would choose the first."

The men answered, almost with one voice, that they would follow Sir
Richard where he would.

And Dick, setting spur to his horse, began once more to go forward.

The snow in the trail had been trodden very hard, and the pursuers
had thus a great advantage over the pursued. They pushed on,
indeed, at a round trot, two hundred hoofs beating alternately on
the dull pavement of the snow, and the jingle of weapons and the
snorting of horses raising a warlike noise along the arches of the
silent wood.

Presently, the wide slot of the pursued came out upon the high road
from Holywood; it was there, for a moment,