Page:The amorous intrigues and adventures of Aaron Burr.pdf/19

 lay between him and the mansion he heard hasty steps thundering behind him, and on turning his head, he saw through the darkness, the form of a large white horses approaching. The animal came on as if enraged at the young man's intrusion upon his premises, and with the evident intention of trampling him under his feet.

Burr rushed towards the infuriated steed with uplifted hands, and words of stern command; but the animal was not to be frightened by such opposition. He showed his naked jaws, and thrust out his head to bite, while, at the same time, he struck with his fore feet.

If our hero had not darted behind a tree, he would have been roughly handled. The beast persisted in following him up, and Burr caught up a large stone, but unwilling to injure the animal, he did not immediately throw it. He looked about him for a fence, over which he could escape, and at that moment, the horse caught the collar of the youth between his teeth, and tore it from the body of the coat. Then the exasperated lover struck at the animal with the stone. The horse reared, and made a plunge at him,and when inevitable destruction seemed to threaten the young man, the wayward beast wheeled, and ran off at full speed to the other end of the lot.

"A narrow escape!" said Burr, aloud, and he walked forward till he came to a stone wall, which he clambered over only to find himself in the close vicinity of a large dog. The animal made a rush at him, yelling hideously, but he was fortunately chained, and could not quite reach the spot where Burr stood.

The noise made by the dog quickly alarmed the inmates of the Dudley mansion, and Burr heard the doors open, and a cry of "thieves! thieves!" from some half a dozen voices.

Burr dodged back over the stone wall, while footsteps of his human pursuers sounded nearer and nearer. He had got about half way over the meadow, when the thundering hoofs of the white horse were again heard in his rear. Horse and men, the latter with loud shouts and imprecations, followed fast after the youth. He saw no other way but to trust to his good legs, and he thought only of flight. He exerted himself to the utmost, and at length gained the fence. He bounded over the rails, and the horse came no farther; but the men kept up the chase. A thick, black-looking grove lay on one side of the flying youth, and towards this he now directed his steps. He was soon among the under-wood, and pricked himself severely with briars. At the next moment, he slumped up to the middle in a quagmire. He thought himself a captive, but the darkness favored him, and though one of the pursuers passed very near, and probably saw him, yet he might easily have been mistaken for the stump of a tree, as not more than three feet of his person was standing out of the mud.

Be that as it may, all the men rushed by, with threatening cries and