Page:Statement of the attempted rescue of General Lafayette from Olmutz.djvu/21

 think only of General Lafayette. You are in every way the best fitted to assist him, and I positively refuse to impede our chance of success, by attempting to mount that horse again. Thus urged, with evident pain and reluctance, yet convinced by such clear reasons, Dr. Bollman put spurs to his horse, and was quickly out of sight.

Mr. Huger walked as fast as he could, in the direction he had seen his friends depart; sometimes stopped to breathe and rest a moment, and looked around for some place of concealment, in vain, then pushed on, hoping to reach a hill he saw in the distance, crowned with wood, thinking that if he could reach it, he might conceal himself in the wood until night. Several horsemen seemed coming up, as if in pursuit, and as one approached him, he jumped down into a dry ditch nearly breast high, which ran along the side of the road, hoping the man might pass him by as he walked along in it. As the man jumped from his horse and looked down at him, he saw that it was not a soldier, but a peasant, and thinking this his last chance, he sprang out of the ditch, seizing the horse’s bridle with one hand, while he held out in the other what money and gold pieces he had in his pocket, crying out in German “give me