"No, my dear; but if your Black Beauty had not been wiser than we were we should all have been carried down the river at the wooden
bridge." I heard no more, as they went into the house, and John took me to the stable.
Black shadows hovered under the arches of the old stone
bridge. The red light had faded from the swift-flowing water, and had left it overspread with one monotonous hue of steely gray.
The other bank of the stream was open ground -- a gentle slope topped with a stockade of vertical tree trunks, loopholed for rifles, with a single embrasure through which protruded the muzzle of a brass cannon commanding the
bridge. Midway up the slope between the
bridge and fort were the spectators -- a single company of infantry in line, at "parade rest," the butts of their rifles on the ground, the barrels inclining slightly backward against the right shoulder, the hands crossed upon the stock.
See how they stretch their shoulders up the slope toward the
bridge, with all the more energy because they are so near home.
But when he looked back at the cliff, there, hanging across the river, was a
bridge all ready for him--made of living monkeys!
The wide expanse that opened out before the heights on which the Russian batteries stood guarding the
bridge was at times veiled by a diaphanous curtain of slanting rain, and then, suddenly spread out in the sunlight, far-distant objects could be clearly seen glittering as though freshly varnished.
He did not in any way exaggerate the condition of the
bridge. It may be taken for granted that, rash as the Americans usually are, when they are prudent there is good reason for it.
They found the body of old man Baker hanging by the neck from one of the beams of the
bridge, immediately beneath the spot where the apparition had stood.
Horseshoes, swords, and the heads of halberds, or bills, are often found there ; one place is called the ``Danes' well,'' another the ``Battle flats.'' From a tradition that the weapon with which the Norwegian champion was slain, resembled a pear, or, as others say, that the trough or boat in which the soldier floated under the
bridge to strike the blow, had such a shape, the country people usually begin a great market, which is held at Stamford, with an entertainment called the Pear-pie feast, which after all may be a corruption of the Spear-pie feast.
As I stood speculating upon our chances once we settled into the frightful Maelstrom beneath us and at the same time mentally computing the hours which must elapse before aid could reach us, the wireless operator clambered up the ladder to the
bridge, and, disheveled and breathless, stood before me at salute.
Their appearance was not calculated to attract the importunate regards of such of London's destitute population, as chanced to take their way over the
bridge that night in search of some cold arch or doorless hovel wherein to lay their heads; they stood there in silence: neither speaking nor spoken to, by any one who passed.
Over this
bridge the Scoodlers led their prisoners, through the opening into the mountain, which they found to be an immense hollow dome lighted by several holes in the roof.