At this moment Letty found it rather hard work to hold her in. She had a short, dancing, impatient action, and seemed to long to be off at a smart rate. All at once there was a blow on the high hawthorn hedge on the left hand of the road, and off went the mare. She took the bit between her teeth, stretched out her neck as straight as a dart, laid back her ears, and away! George and Mr. Degge endeavoured to spring on before her and seize her by the bridle-rein, but this only set her off more impetuously than before. In vain Letty pulled her in with all her power, and endeavoured to pluck, by a sudden jerk, the bit out of her teeth. She held it as fast as if in a vice, and went off, spite of her efforts, at a furious rate. George and Mr. Degge were in the utmost alarm. Any attempt to pursue her only made the frantic animal dash on more madly. One thing appeared in Letty’s favour; there was a long, ascending, though not very steep hill, and her friends trusted that the mare would wind herself before she got to the top, and so allow herself to be pulled in. George, without daring to gallop after her at full speed, yet kept on at a smart pace, taking the grassy borders of the road, so as not to let the flying animal hear him more than he could help. Mr. Degge, who stopped a moment to look over a gate into the field, to see whence the alarm had come, was now galloping rapidly after. Letty kept her seat like a capital horsewoman as she was; and George felt confident that unless something caused the mare to start aside or to fall, she would go on safely home with her. But there might be people coming who might attempt to stop the mare, and cause her to swerve suddenly aside, or she might dash madly against one of the two turnpike gates and kill both herself and rider. The speed at which she flew on was frightful. God’s providence could alone prevent some fatal disaster. In one place there was a broken spot in the middle of the road, over which she sprang with a tremendous leap, but Letty sate securely, and away! away! they went like the wind: the two gentlemen in breathless terror following as near as they dare approach. Anon, the flying maniac steed came to a steep and considerable descent. “If Letty keeps her seat there,” said or rather thought George, “it will all be well.” He gazed with fixed eyes and suspended breath as he himself sped along, expecting to see his sister lose in that rapid, shaking descent, her equilibrium, and perhaps fly over the horse’s head, but no,—unmoved, undaunted, as it would appear by her steady figure and attitude, on she flew, a cloud of dust coming driving thickly behind her.