advantage to hasten to the bows of the canoe, where,
striding across the body of his insensible companion,
he, with a few vigorous strokes of the remaining paddle,
urged the lagging bark rapidly a-head. In no way intimidated
by his disaster, the courageous old man, again brandishing
his cudgel, and vociferating taunts of defiance, would
have continued the pursuit, but panting as he was, not
only with the exertion he had made, but under the weight
of his impatient rider, in an element in which he was
supported merely by his own buoyancy, the strength and
spirit of the animal began now perceptibly to fail him,
and he turned, despite of every effort to prevent him,
towards the shore. It was fortunate for the former that
there were no arms in the canoe, or neither he nor the
horse would, in all probability, have returned alive;
such was the opinion, at least, pronounced by those who
were witnesses of the strange scene, and who remarked
the infuriated but impotent gestures of Desborough, as
the old man, having once more gotten his steed into depth,
slowly pursued his course towards the shore, but with
the same wild brandishing of his enormous cudgel, and
the same rocking from side to side, until his body was
often at right angles with that of his jaded but sure-footed
beast. As he is, however, a character meriting rather
more than the casual notice we have bestowed, we shall
take the opportunity while he is hastening to the
discomfited officers on the beach, more particularly to
describe him.