St. George and St. Michael. Volume II

All was done as had been arranged. Lord Herbert saddled Dick, not / unaided of Dorothy, lifted her to his back, and led her to the gate, / in full vision of Marquis, who went wild at the sight, and / threatened to pull down kennel and all in his endeavours to follow / them. Lord Herbert himself opened the yard gate, for the horses had / already been suppered, and the men were in bed. He then walked by / her side down to the brick gate. A moment there, and she was free / and alone, with the wide green fields and the yellow moonlight all / about her.

She had some difficulty in making Dick go slowly -- quietly she could / not -- for the first minute or two, as lord Herbert had directed. He / had had but little exercise of late, and moved as if his four legs / felt like wings. Dorothy had ridden him very little since she came / to the castle, but being very handy, lord Charles had used him, and / one of the grooms had always taken him to ride messages. He had / notwithstanding had but little of the pleasure of speed for a long / time, and when Dorothy at length gave him the rein, he flew as if / every member of his body from tail to ears and eyelids had been an / engine of propulsion. But Dorothy had more wings than Dick. Her / whole being was full of wings. It was a small thing that she had not / had a right gallop since she left Wyfern; the strength she had been / putting forth to bear the Atlas burden that night lifted from her / soul, was now left free to upbear her, and she seemed in spirit to / soar aloft into the regions of aether. With her horse under her, the / moon over her, "the wind of their own speed" around them, and her / heart beating with a joy such as she had never known, she could / hardly help doubting sometimes for a moment whether she was not out / in one of those delightful dreams of liberty and motion which had so / frequently visited her sleep since she came to Raglan. Three shrill / whistles she had blown, about a hundred yards from the gate, had / heard the eager crowded bark of her dog in answer, and then Dick / went flying over the fields like a water-bird over the lake, that / scratches its smooth surface with its feet as it flies. Around the / rampart they went. The still night was jubilant around them as they / flew.