Walker-My_Musical_Ex.. - Walter Cosand

HENSELT 177
walking. The fates, however, that evening were very
propitious to me, though just at that moment it
seemed to my thinking to be quite the other way. I
had not gone very far in the field, before I found all
further progress impeded by the awkward fact that I
was getting into a marsh. There was, therefore,
nothing for it but to turn back ; this I accordingly
did, taking care, however, to keep as far as possible
from the path, along which Henselt was now advancing
with rapid strides. Just then it occurred to me
that he was said to be short-sighted. I reflected,
therefore, that if I could regain the path before he
came up, I might cross into the fields which lay on
the other side, and so avoid a meeting, which would
be otherwise almost inevitable. The first step, how-
ever, which I made to regain the pathway plunged
me nearly ankle-deep in water. I tried a second, and
sank even still deeper. All the space between the
pathway and the edge of the field where I was stand-
ing had been flooded by recent heavy rains, and was,
though covered with grass, quite like a marsh. No
use, therefore, in trying this mode of escape ! By
this time Henselt was very near, and, as a last
desperate resource, I walked along without looking
round, in the hope that perhaps he might not observe
me. But the old general could see further than his
friends imagined. He had seen me, and had probably
thought that I was trying to regain the pathway in
order to come up with him. Be this as it may, in a
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