I had a glimpse of a woman flying far ahead of us; and now hidden
from us by the trunks and now disclosed; and could even see
enough to determine that she wore a yellow feather drooping from
her hat, and was in figure not unlike the Princess. But that was
all; for, once started, the inequalities of the ground drew my
eyes from the flying form, and, losing it, I could not again
recover it. On the contrary, it was all I could do to keep up
with the King; and of the speed at which the woman was riding,
could best judge by the fact that in less than five minutes he,
too, pulled-up with a gesture of despair, and waited for me to
come abreast of him.
"You saw her?" he said, his face grim, and with something of
suspicion lurking in it.
"Yes, sire," I answered, "I saw a woman, and a woman with a
yellow feather; but whether it was the Princess--"
"It was!" he said. "If not, why should she flee from us?"
To that, again, I had not a word to say, and for a moment we rode
in silence. Observing, however, that this last turn had brought
us far on the way home, I called the King's attention to this;
but he had sunk into a fit of gloomy abstraction, and rode along
with his eyes on the ground.
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