MAID OF THE MIST
BY
JOHN OXENHAM
HODDER AND STOUGHTON
PUBLISHERS LONDON
Printed in 1917
TO
MY FRIEND
FREDERICK CÆSAR de SUMICHRAST
Professor Emeritus of French Literature
at
Harvard University
in
HIGHEST ESTEEM
and
MOST AFFECTIONATE REGARD.
CONTENTS
For a Woman's Sake
No Man's Land
Bone of Contention
Love in a Mist
Garden of Eden
BOOK I
FOR A WOMAN'S SAKE
I
At sight of where the chase was leading, most of the riders reined intheir panting horses and sat watching those in front with anxious faces.
The Old Roman Road—so called, though with possibly somewhat doubtfulclaim to antiquity so remote—had an evil reputation. At best of timesit was dangerous. More than one of them had sacrificed a horse to itat some time or other. Some had come near to sacrificing more.
After several hours in the field, wound up by a fast five-and-twentyminutes' run which had led round Endsley Wood and the coppices almostto Wynn Hall, and then back through Dursel Bottom, and up Whin Hill, itwas too much to ask of any horse. Besides, it meant the end of the runin any case, for that old fox, if he failed to shake them offelsewhere, always made for the Roman Road and always managed it there.
The hedge on this side was as thick and matted a quickset as ever grew.The sunk road had no doubt originally been a covered way from the oldfort up above. It was indeed more of a trench than a road, with asheer descent from the quickset of ten good feet, a width of about asmuch, and a grass slope on the other side at a somewhat lower level.
The leap was therefore by no means impossible if your horse could riseto the hedge and cover the distance and the extra bit for a footing.
But what was the good? The bottom of the old road was always a muddydribble from the fields above, and up and down it went several flocksof sheep whenever they changed pasture. And the wily old fox knew theeffect of these things on scent as well as any hound or huntsman. So,when it was his day, and he had had enough of them, he made for the OldRoman Road, and then went home with a curl in his lip and a laugh inhis eye.
But there were riders among them to whom a ride was nothing without arisk in it, and the Roman Road a standing test and temptation. It wastwo such that the rest who ha