The Child of Waterloo, or, The Horrors of the Battle-Field — page 74: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE CHILD OF WATERLOO. 71 one was life, and the other justice. Each strained his utmost, and exerted every nerve and sinew to the extreme. The moon- light lit up the old churchyard, and the two dark human figures, rushing with the speed of wind among the old tombstones, gave the place an awful and mysterious appearance. _ But the slightest accident oftentimes bars the best made and easiest executed schemes; and so it was now, for, had not Jem discharged the pistol, he would now have secured the man who fled before him. As they neared the wicket-gate, the man rushed through; but he was impeded for a moment, and this en- abled Jem to reach him, and he could with another stride have seized him. But at that moment he himself met with the same impediment, and the man, having released himself, was again enabled to secure the same distance between them as before ex- isted, for Jem had to pass through the same wicket. ‘‘Murderer! villain! you shall not escape me; you shall answer with your life for the bloody deed you have committed.” The man answered not; he still fled onward, with the same rapidity, the same firm struggle for the mastery in speed—for the security of life, and the attainment of justice. On—on—on they went, with a bounding step: the sound of their feet was dull and heavy, but quick: the heavy beats sounded in startling- ly rapid succession, and the wind almost whistled through their clothes. The man seemed inclined to make toward a wood that lay at no great distance: but Jem, seeming to anticipate that, contrived to keep on that side of him, so that, should he attempt to do so, he must make an angle, and then he would cross it and come close upon him. The moon threw a broad and bright light upon the earth—not a cloud was now to be seen in any part of the heavens—on the contrary, they were cloudless, and the earth was illuminated by her silvery ight. Broad shadows reached the plain, and the trees at a short distance looked, by the strength of the shadows, as if they were double, and impen- etrable; and, could the man have reached any of these, no doubt he would have attempted a deviation of course: but he seemed fearful of attempting such a maneuver with an enemy so close upon his heels, and when the loss of a single stride might cost him his life. Desperate, indeed, was the struggle of those two men, theone to escape, and the other to overtake, and yet neither could succeed. At one moment, indeed, there was almost the certainty of the chase being ended in a mortal struggle: for the stranger missed his way as he made fora gap in a hedge: he had to make a bend to get to it, and this gave the hostler the op- portunity of reaching him on the bank. Just at that moment, as the man was about to spring, and Jem’s hand was about to close upon his shoulder, he fell and rolled down on the other sideof theditch. This accident released him from Jem’s intend- ed grasp, who was also unlucky enough to stumble against a stake, which threw him into the gap, while the other scrambled out of the ditch. With asudden spring Jem rose, and cleared the ditch. Then again commenced the desperate chase, which for a mo- ment only had been disturbed by this slight accident, which had, comicbooks. com