forms. I could see it well, for flames were already bursting out; the
rags and straw had evidently caught fire from the lantern. Still silence
there! Not a sound! These old wretches could die game, anyhow.

I had no time for more than a passing glance, for as I cast an eye round
the mound preparatory to making my descent I saw several dark forms
rushing round on either side to cut me off on my way. It was now a race
for life. They were trying to head me on my way to Paris, and with the
instinct of the moment I dashed down to the right-hand side. I was just
in time, for, though I came as it seemed to me down the steep in a few
steps, the wary old men who were watching me turned back, and one, as I
rushed by into the opening between the two mounds in front, almost
struck me a blow with that terrible butcher's axe. There could surely
not be two such weapons about!

Then began a really horrible chase. I easily ran ahead of the old men,
and even when some younger ones and a few women joined in the hunt I
easily distanced them. But I did not know the way, and I could not even
guide myself by the light in the sky, for I was running away from it. I
had heard that, unless of conscious purpose, hunted men turn always to
the left, and so I found it now; and so, I suppose, knew also my
pursuers, who were more animals than men, and with cunning or instinct
had found out such secrets for themselves: for on finishing a quick
spurt, after which I intended to take a moment's breathing space, I
suddenly saw ahead of me two or three forms swiftly passing behind a
mound to the right.

I was in the spider's web now indeed! But with the thought of this new
danger came the resource of the hunted, and so I darted down the next
turning to the right. I continued in this direction for some hundred