Page:Long pack, or, A shot with Copenhagen (2).pdf/17

 were without at a considerable distance from each other. They durst not follow their tract farther, as the road entered betwixt groves of retreated into their posts without touching any thing

About an hour before day, some of them were alarmed at hearing the sound of horses feet a second time, which, however, was only indistinct and heard at considerable intervals, and nothing of them ever appeared, Not long after this, Edward and his friend were almost frightened out of their wits, at seeing, as they thought, the dead man within the gate, endeavouring to get up and escape They had seen him dead, lying surrounded by a deluge of congealed blood, and nothing but the ideas of ghosts and hobgoblins entering their brains, they were so indiscreet as never to think of firing, but ran and told the tale of horror to some of their neighbours The sky was by this time grown so dark, that nothing could be seen with precision, and they all remained in anxious incertitude, until the opening day discovered to them, by degrees, that the corpses were removed, and nothing left but large sheets of frozen blood, and the morning's alarms by the ghost and the noise of horses, had been occasioned by some of the friends of the men that had fallen, conveying them away for fear of a discovery.

Next morning the news flew like fire, and the three servants were much incommoded by crowds of idle and officious people that gathered about the house, some inquiring after the smallest particulars, some begging to see the body that lay