`` Ye are , doubtless , right , '' returned Dick ; `` but we came right hastily upon the errand , even as the time commanded . Here are no houses , neither for food nor shelter , and by the morrow 's dawn we shall know both cold fingers and an empty belly . How say ye , lads ? Will ye stand a pinch for expedition 's sake , or shall we turn by Holywood and sup with Mother Church ? The case being somewhat doubtful , I will drive no man ; yet if ye would suffer me to lead you , ye would choose the first . '' The men answered , almost with one voice , that they would follow Sir Richard where he would . And Dick , setting spur to his horse , began once more to go forward . The snow in the trail had been trodden very hard , and the pursuers had thus a great advantage over the pursued . They pushed on , indeed , at a round trot , two hundred hoofs beating alternately on the dull pavement of the snow , and the jingle of weapons and the snorting of horses raising a warlike noise along the arches of the silent wood . Presently , the wide slot of the pursued came out upon the high road from Holywood ; it was there , for a moment , indistinguishable ; and , where it once more plunged into the unbeaten snow upon the farther side , Dick was surprised to see it narrower and lighter trod . Plainly , profiting by the road , Sir Daniel had begun already to scatter his command . At all hazards , one chance being equal to another , Dick continued to pursue the straight trail ; and that , after an hour 's riding , in which it led into the very depths of the forest , suddenly split , like a bursting shell , into two dozen others , leading to every point of the compass . Dick drew bridle in despair . The short winter 's day was near an end ; the sun , a dull red orange , shorn of rays , swam low among the leafless thickets ; the shadows were a mile long upon the snow ; the frost bit cruelly at the finger-nails ; and the breath and steam of the horses mounted in a cloud . `` Well , we are outwitted , '' Dick confessed . `` Strike we for Holywood , after all . It is still nearer us than Tunstall -- or should be by the station of the sun . '' So they wheeled to their left , turning their backs on the red shield of sun , and made across country for the abbey . But now times were changed with them ; they could no longer spank forth briskly on a path beaten firm by the passage of their foes , and for a goal to which that path itself conducted them . Now they must plough at a dull pace through the encumbering snow , continually pausing to decide their course , continually floundering in drifts .
The sun soon XXXXX them ; the glow of the west decayed ; and presently they were wandering in a shadow of blackness , under frosty stars .
Daniel Dick Holywood Mother Richard Tunstall first hour left trod