Читать книгу A Queen of Nine Days онлайн

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And with that he lifted me hastily from the ground, and, placing me upon his own horse, vaulted lightly into the saddle behind me.

'Hold fast, madam,' he said in my ear. 'Put your arms round my neck; so. That is it. Now, Sultan, good horse, gallop thy fastest!'

Whinnying low, the horse tore off across the fallow fields, and away we went like the wind, but I did not know even so much as the name of the valiant knight to whom I was clinging as for life.

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I had been carried off in such haste as left me no time to look back and see if my servants were equally well mounted, and for some time all I could do was to cling to my cavalier. I felt his heart beating as I did so and his warm breath fanning my cheeks. Moments seemed hours as they passed.

And now shouts and the sound of pursuing horsemen entering the fields in full career after us sounded in our ears, and, looking back, we saw a company of riders as well as foot-runners.

'Hold tight, madam; we take the fence. Hurrah! old Sultan has done it!' cried my knight, and we were over and speeding across a meadow long before any one else had reached the fence.