college was cleared out of the way.
At that I gripped my wife s arm, and without ceremony ran her out into
the road. Then I fetched out the servant, telling her I would go
upstairs myself for the box she was clamouring for.
We can t possibly stay here, I said; and as I spoke the firing
reopened for a moment upon the common.
But where are we to go? said my wife in terror.
I thought perplexed. Then I remembered her cousins at Leatherhead.
Leatherhead! I shouted above the sudden noise.
She looked away from me downhill. The people were coming out of their
houses, astonished.
How are we to get to Leatherhead? she said.
Down the hill I saw a bevy of hussars ride under the railway bridge;
three galloped through the open gates of the Oriental College; two
others dismounted, and began running from house to house. The sun,
shining through the smoke that drove up from the tops of the trees,
seemed blood red, and threw an unfamiliar lurid light upon everything.
Stop here, said I; you are safe here; and I started off at once for
the Spotted Dog, for I knew the landlord had a horse and dog cart. I
ran, for I perceived that in a moment everyone upon this side of the
hill would be moving. I found him in his bar, quite unaware of what was
going on behind his house. A man stood with his back to me, talking to
him.
I must have a pound, said the landlord, and I ve no one to drive
it.
I ll give you two, said I, over the stranger s shoulder.
What for?
34