with a precision, velocity, and strength, absolutely bewildering.

He fairly overturned all my preconceived notions of a fast horse. On
he thundered, till we came under the shadow of a fir-wood, and then,
whether out of mischief or dread of the darkness, he halted
instantaneously, his fore-feet so close together that you might have
put them into a bucket. Owing to the depression of his shoulders--for
he had no more withers than an ass--the way that he jerked down his
head, and the suddenness of the stop, a monkey, although he had been
holding on with his teeth, must have been unseated. For me, I was
pitched a long way over his head, but alighted upon a spot so soft and
mossy, that it looked as if some kind hand had purposely prepared it
for me. Had I been in the slightest degree stunned, or unable to
regain my feet, that instant he would have torn me to pieces with his
teeth, and beaten my mangled body into the earth with his hoofs. But I
at once sprang to my feet, and faced him. I could have escaped by
leaping into the wood; but my blood was up, my brain clear, and my
heart gave not one extra pulsation. There he stood upon his hind-legs
nearly upright, beating the air with his fore-feet, his mouth open,
his upper lip curled, his under one drawn down, his large white teeth
glancing like ivory in the moonlight. As soon as he saw me upon my
feet, he gave a yell such as I had never heard from a horse before,
save once, and which I believe is never elicited from that animal,
except when under the domination of frantic rage or fear.

This unearthly cry roused every living thing within hearing. An army
of rooks, startled from their encampment in the wood, circled and
wheeled between us and the moon, shading her light, and filling the
midnight air with their discordant screams. This attracted the
attention of Satan, and, bringing his fore-feet to the ground, he