Speech is the familiar vent¹ of human thoughts; but there are emotions so simple and overpowering, that they rush out not in words, but eloquent² sounds. At such moments man seems to lose his characteristics, and to be merely one of the higher animals; for these, when greatly agitated³, ejaculate, though they cannot speak.  
There was something terrible and truly animal, both in the roar of triumph with which the pursuers burst out of the thicket⁴ on our fugitives⁵, and the sharp cry of terror with which these latter darted⁶ away. The pursuers hands clutched the empty air, scarce two feet behind them, as they fled for life. Confused for a moment, like lions that miss their spring, Dierich and his men let Gerard and the mule⁷ put ten yards between them. Then they flew after with uplifted weapons. They were sure of catching⁸ them; for this was not the first time the parties had measured speed. In the open ground they had gained visibly on the three this morning, and now, at last, it was a fair race again, to be settled by speed alone. A hundred yards were covered in no time. Yet still there remained these ten yards between the pursuers and the pursued.
 
This increase of speed since the morning puzzled Dierich Brower. The reason was this. When three run in company, the pace is that of the slowest of the three. From Peter's house to the edge of the forest Gerard ran Margaret's pace; but now he ran his own; for the mule was fleet, and could have left them all far behind. Moreover, youth and chaste⁹ living began to tell. Daylight grew imperceptibly between the hunted ones and the hunters. Then Dierich made a desperate effor............