Loveday's History by Lucy Ellen Guernsey

SO here was I, being carried off at a breakneck speed through the dim moonlight of the August night, like a damsel in Romance whom some enchanter has trussed up and borne away on a hip-pogriff. My conductor spake never a word, and I was too busy keeping my seat to have any breath to spare for questions, had I dared to ask them. I was sure my companion was some one I had seen, but where and when I could not say. He had the Duke's ring, which none but a trusted servant could have gotten into his hands, and at all events, I could do nothing but abide the result of mine adventure.

At last, after we had ridden more than an hour at this headlong pace, and I was far from any place I had ever seen before, my guide slackened his paces and turning toward me, asked how I fared.