But the wild boars had by no means abandoned the party. They ran beside the carriage, and kept worrying the horses while they attacked the chaise, which could not distance them.
Seigneur Kéraban, Van Mitten, and Bruno were very soon thrown to the bottom of the carriage.
"Either we shall be overturned—" cried Van Mitten.
"Or we shall not," interrupted Kéraban.
"It would be better to seize the reins," said Bruno judiciously as, lowering the front windows of the chaise, he sought to grasp the "ribbons;" but the horses had in their struggle broken them, and the valet was obliged to abandon his attempts, and to allow the animals to continue their headlong course across the swampy ground. There were no means of stopping them, and if any had presented themselves, the boars would also have halted. So the three men had to depend upon their weapons.
Of the travellers, thrown against each other or into the corners of the carriage at every jolt of the conveyance, the one resigned as a true Mussulman ought to be, the others as phlegmatic as Dutchmen, never exchanged a remark.
Thus an hour passed away, and the chaise still was dragged along at the same furious pace; but the wild boars did not abandon the chase.
"Van Mitten, my friend," said Kéraban at length, "I can tell you how a traveller, under similar circumstances to these, when pursued by a pack of wolves in Russia, was saved by the sublime devotion of his servant."
"How was that?" inquired Van Mitten.
"In a very simple way," replied Kéraban. "The servant took an affectionate. farewell of his master; then, recommending himself to Heaven, he threw himself out of the carriage; and while the wolves stopped to devour him, his master managed to distance them and was saved!"
"It is very unfortunate that Nizib is away just now," remarked Bruno dryly.
After this little speech the travellers relapsed into silence, and calmly waited events.
Night was now closing in, and still the horses did not
