"
Quitting the Home Park, they shaped their course at once towards the
forest. It was a stormy night, and the moon was obscured by thick
clouds. Before they reached the hill, at the end of the long avenue, a
heavy thunderstorm came on, and the lightning, playing among the
trees, seemed to reveal a thousand fantastic forms to their half-blinded
gaze. Presently the rain began to descend in torrents, and compelled
them to take refuge beneath a large beech-tree.
It was evident, notwithstanding his boasting, that the courage of
Shoreditch was waning fast, and he at last proposed to his leader that
they should return as soon as the rain abated. But the duke indignantly
rejected the proposal.
While they were thus sheltering themselves, the low winding of a horn
was heard. The sound was succeeded by the trampling of horses'
hoofs, and the next moment a vivid flash of lightning showed a hart
darting past, followed by a troop of some twenty ghostly horsemen,
headed by the demon hunter.
The Duke of Richmond bade his companion send a shaft after them; but
the latter was so overcome by terror that he could scarcely fix an arrow
on the string, and when he bent the bow, the shaft glanced from the
branches of an adjoining tree.
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