Wednesday, November 9, 2016

As yet the panic of the steed had given his unskillful rider an apparent advantage in the chase;but just as he had got halfway through the hollow, the girths of the saddle gave way, and he felt it slipping from under him. He seized it by the pommel and endeavored to hold it firm, but in vain; and had just time to save himself by clasping old gunpowder around the neck when the saddle fell to the earth, and he heard it trampled under foot by his pursuer. For a moment the terror of Hans Van Ripper's wrath passed across his mind-for it was his Sunday saddle; but this was no time for petty fears;the goblin was hard on his haunches, and (unskillful rider that was!) he had much ado to maintain his seat, sometimes slipping on one side, sometimes on the other, and sometimes jolted on the high ridge of his horse's backbone with  a violence that he verily feared would cleave him asunder.


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