But, as the body of the herd pressed
more and more upon the open line of its defenders, and the dust
thickened, so as to obscure their persons, there was, at each instant,
a renewed danger of the beasts breaking through. It became necessary
for the trapper and his companions to become still more and more
alert; and they were gradually yielding before the headlong multitude,
when a furious bull darted by Middleton, so near as to brush his
person, and, at the next instant, swept through the thicket with the
velocity of the wind.
"Close, and die for the ground," shouted the old man, "or a thousand
of the devils will be at his heels!"
All their efforts would have proved fruitless, however, against the
living torrent, had not Asinus, whose domains had just been so rudely
entered, lifted his voice, in the midst of the uproar. The most sturdy
and furious of the bulls trembled at the alarming and unknown cry, and
then each individual brute was seen madly pressing from that very
thicket, which, the moment before, he had endeavoured to reach, with
the eagerness with which the murderer seeks the sanctuary.
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