Explore "The Pearl of the Andes" by Gustave Aimard on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
But when setting forward so hastily, Valentine had considered the peril of the situation more than the possibility of travelling far at a quick pace. At the end of a very few miles the horses, overridden for two days together, and exceedingly weakened by the hurricane, could scarcely be kept going; whip and spur were obliged to be constantly applied to keep them on their legs. At length, after an hour spent in fruitless efforts. Don Tadeo, whose horse, a noble, well-bred animal had just stumbled twice from sheer weakness, was the first to call Valentines attention to the impossibility of going farther at present.
"I know it -- I feel it! " the young man replied; "the poor animals are foundered; but what can we do? We must kill them, if it be necessary!"