steep and broken ground, but began to spin round
like tops, and would not advance up the hill.
Some hard, iron-clad oaths, and then shot after shot. I turned, drew a pistol, and the battle com menced in earnest. The officer was unhorsed, and lay bleeding on the ground from a frightful wound, while Hirst, further down the hill, could only fire random shots over the head of his restless and plunging horse. It lasted but a few moments.
These men were both famous as pistol shots ; but they were not, here, equal to their reputation, and that was because they were shooting on a range they had never yet tried. They had only practised on the level ground or in a well-arranged gallery, and when it came to shooting up hill they were helpless ; and so it often happens with others. There are other men, again, who are dead pistol shots when allowed to draw deliberately and take aim slowly and fire at leisure ; but when compelled to use the pistol instantly in some imminent peril, the only time they are ever really required to use it, they are slow, awkward, and embarrassed.
Let us for a moment follow the fortunes of these two men before us : the one lying bleeding on the ground, and the other flying down and across the hill, firing, and trying to hold his spirited horse to the work.
