Thus admirably qualified for a guide, I agreed to make
the attempt, being determined to spare no pains, in the hope of
discovering the object of our search.
Company breeds courage. Several of the guests, finding how matters
stood, and that the encounter was not likely to be made single-handed,
volunteered their attendance; so that our retinue was shortly augmented
to some half-dozen stout fellows. The vanguard was composed of myself
and the lovers; the rest crept close in our rear, forming their rank as
broad as the nature of the ground would admit.
Luckily I soon found the jutting bank round which I had turned on my
first view of the house we had just left. We proceeded in
silence,--except that a whisper occasionally arose from one of the
rearmost individuals talking to his bolder neighbour in front, when
finding his own courage on the wane. Following for some time what
appeared to be the traces of recent footsteps, I hoped, yet almost
feared, that every moment I might stumble on the bleeding corpse. An
attendant in the rear now gave the alarm,--something he saw moving on
our left causing him to make a desperate struggle to get before his
companions.
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