The Trumpet-Major by Thomas Hardy

He stopped and reflected how to turn this rebuff to advantage. Baulked / in his project of entering the watering-place and enjoying / congratulations upon his patriotic bearing during the advance, he sulkily / considered that he might be able to make some use of his enforced / retirement by riding to Overcombe and glorifying himself in the eyes of / Miss Garland before the truth should have reached that hamlet. Having / thus decided he spurred on in a better mood.

By this time the volunteers were on the march, and as Derriman ascended / the road he met the Overcombe company, in which trudged Miller Loveday / shoulder to shoulder with the other substantial householders of the place / and its neighbourhood, duly equipped with pouches, cross-belts, / firelocks, flint-boxes, pickers, worms, magazines, priming-horns, heel- / ball, and pomatum. There was nothing to be gained by further suppression / of the truth, and briefly informing them that the danger was not so / immediate as had been supposed, Festus galloped on. At the end of / another mile he met a large number of pikemen, including Bob Loveday, / whom the yeoman resolved to sound upon the whereabouts of Anne. The / circumstances were such as to lead Bob to speak more frankly than he / might have done on reflection, and he told Festus the direction in which / the women had been sent. Then Festus informed the group that the report / of invasion was false, upon which they all turned to go homeward with / greatly relieved spirits.

Bob walked beside Derriman's horse for some distance. Loveday had / instantly made up his mind to go and look for the women, and ease their / anxiety by letting them know the good news as soon as possible. But he / said nothing of this to Festus during their return together; nor did / Festus tell Bob that he also had resolved to seek them out, and by / anticipating every one else in that enterprise, make of it a glorious / opportunity for bringing Miss Garland to her senses about him. He still / resented the ducking that he had received at her hands, and was not / disposed to let that insult pass without obtaining some sort of sweet / revenge.

As soon as they had parted Festus cantered on over the hill, meeting on / his way the Longpuddle volunteers, sixty rank and file, under Captain / Cunningham; the Casterbridge company, ninety strong (known as the / 'Consideration Company' in those days), under Captain Strickland; and / others -- all with anxious faces and covered with dust. Just passing the / word to them and leaving them at halt, he proceeded rapidly onward in the / direction of King's-Bere. Nobody appeared on the road for some time, / till after a ride of several miles he met a stray corporal of volunteers, / who told Festus in answer to his inquiry that he had certainly passed no / gig full of women of the kind described. Believing that he had missed / them by following the highway, Derriman turned back into a lane along / which they might have chosen to journey for privacy's sake, / notwithstanding the badness and uncertainty of its track. Arriving again / within five miles of Overcombe, he at length heard tidings of the / wandering vehicle and its precious burden, which, like the Ark when sent / away from the country of the Philistines, had apparently been left to the / instincts of the beast that drew it. A labouring man, just at daybreak, / had seen the helpless party going slowly up a distant drive, which he / pointed out.

No sooner had Festus parted from this informant than he beheld Bob / approaching, mounted on the miller's second and heavier horse. Bob / looked rather surprised, and Festus felt his coming glory in danger.

'They went down that lane,' he said, signifying precisely the opposite / direction to the true one. 'I, too, have been on the look-out for / missing friends.'

As Festus was riding back there was no reason to doubt his information, / and Loveday rode on as misdirected. Immediately that he was out of sight / Festus reversed his course, and followed the track which Anne and her / companions were last seen to pursue.

This road had been ascended by the gig in question nearly two hours / before the present moment. Molly, the servant, held the reins, Mrs. / Loveday sat beside her, and Anne behind. Their progress was but slow, / owing partly to Molly's want of skill, and partly to the steepness of the / road, which here passed over downs of some extent, and was rarely or / never mended. It was an anxious morning for them all, and the beauties / of the early summer day fell upon unheeding eyes. They were too anxious / even for conjecture, and each sat thinking her own thoughts, occasionally / glancing westward, or stopping the horse to listen to sounds from more / frequented roads along which other parties were retreating. Once, while / they listened and gazed thus, they saw a glittering in the distance, and / heard the tramp of many horses. It was a large body of cavalry going in / the direction of the King's watering-place, the same regiment of / dragoons, in fact, which Festus had seen further on in its course. The / women in the gig had no doubt that these men were marching at once to / engage the enemy. By way of varying the monotony of the journey Molly / occasionally burst into tears of horror, believing Buonaparte to be in / countenance and habits precisely what the caricatures represented him. / Mrs. Loveday endeavoured to establish cheerfulness by assuring her / companions of the natural civility of the French nation, with whom / unprotected women were safe from injury, unless through the casual / excesses of soldiery beyond control. This was poor consolation to Anne, / whose mind was more occupied with Bob than with herself, and a miserable / fear that she would never again see him alive so paled her face and / saddened her gaze forward, that at last her mother said, 'Who was you / thinking of, my dear? ' Anne's only reply was a look at her mother, with / which a tear mingled.