5. V.
WHAT I SAW ON THE BROOK ROAD.
The incident just related made a strong impression upon me;
and the face I had thus canght a glimpse of in the moonlight
continued to haunt me. But an affair with which I found myself
mixed up, a few days afterward, for the moment quite
diverted my attention from the owner of the handkerchief.
Having brought an excellent riding horse from Essex, I was in
the habit of riding out in the evening for exercise, after the confinement
of the Convention. The Brook road, extending in a
northwestern direction from the city, was a favorite ride; and
one evening I went in that direction, soon emerging from the
dusty streets into the broad highway, which unrolled itself like
a long brown ribbon upon a robe of emerald.
Three or four miles from the city, near the point where the
slender spire of the Brook Church rises from the trees, a horseman
at full gallop passed me, and descended the hill in front.
As he shot by, I could see that he was tall and vigorous; his
face was pale; and as he fled onward he looked over his shoulder
with the air of one who is pursued.
Such proved to be the fact. As he disappeared beneath the
crest of the hill, a second horseman appeared approaching at full
speed; and he too darted by and disappeared like a vision of the
night.
What could all this mean? Here were evidently flight and
pursuit; and in the Middle Ages, nothing would have been more
natural. Then, gentlemen rode down their adversaries; but, in
this prosaic age, men generally go in pursuit of their loves or
vengeances by the railway.
The apparition of the two cavaliers puzzled me so greatly that
I galloped on to see, if possible, what would ensue.
In this I was fortunate. He who had first appeared had descended
the hill leading to the brook, and, thundering over the
little rustic bridge, would no doubt have distanced his pursuer,
had not an accident arrested him. His horse placed his foot
upon a rolling stone, stumbled, and, falling, threw his rider, who
rose just as his pursuer came up. As the latter approached,
however, the former drew from his breast a paper which he tore
into a hundred pieces; after which he folded his arms and confronted
his opponent with an air of defiance which was discernible
even at the distance from which I regarded the scene.
A brief parley followed, and, from the violence of the gestures
on both sides, a personal collision appeared about to take place.
None ensued, however, and to my surprise both horsemen remounted,
and returned toward the city.
As they passed me, I could see in the countenance of the one
who had been pursued an expression of sullen and bitter hatred
—in the face of the other a gloomy satisfaction, something like
a ferocious joy.
Such was the curious incident I encountered in my ride. As
the reader will soon perceive, I was destined to be present at
the sequel of the affair, and witness, if not understand, the denouement.
