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To have passed nigh an hour motionless in his stirrups, with the skies like brass above him, while he was already worn with riding from sunrise well-nigh to sunset, with little to appease hunger and less to slake thirst, made him, despite himself, stagger dizzily under a certain sense of blindness and exhaustion as he dismounted.
He rides Moorish fashion, with his stirrups very short, and wears a curved cutlass in his belt. He is a great friend of Caesar Borgia's, which does not prevent Caesar and his father, according to public rumour, from poisoning him at a farewell banquet in Capua. And here is Giovanni Sforza again, on foot.
Still maintaining his grasp of the weapon, he raised himself in his stirrups to give additional force to the blow, and with the pummel of the sword, struck Sir Giles a blow upon the brainpan with such violence, that he dropped from the saddle as if shot. During this strange scene, not a word had been uttered by the spectators, who looked on with the greatest curiosity, wondering how it would end.
He leaned forward in his stirrups, and placing the point of his sword under the silken garment, by throwing aside the covering, discovered part of the form of the reverend gentleman who had fled from the Locusts, the evening before, in his robes of office. "In truth, Hollister had some ground for his alarm; an army chaplain is, at any time, a terror to a troop of horse."
"He'll charge at and roll us over and over down the slope," thought Bart, as he freed his feet from the stirrups, ready to leap off and avoid being crushed beneath his nag. Nine yards eight yards six yards closer and closer, and the bison did not charge.
Fortunately the rancher's feet still clung to the stirrups, but his head was hanging so low that it appeared to be bumping along the ground with every leap of his pony, which was headed straight for the lines of the enemy. "Oh, why won't they see him!" groaned the lad. "I can't stand it to sit here doing nothing and see a man lose his life that way if he's not dead already."
"Well, look!" said Porthos, raising himself in his stirrups, which made the fore-quarters of his horse bend sadly, "do you see that corner, in the sun, yonder?" "Yes, I see it plainly." "Well, that is the cathedral." "Which is called?" "Saint-Pierre. Now look again in the faubourg on the left, do you see another cross?" "Perfectly well." "That is Saint-Patern, the parish preferred by Aramis."
"I'm right with you, Pop. You say so, and I'm gone!" They reined in with the shadow of the post falling square across the necks of both horses. Pop gathered up the reins, set his feet in the stirrups and shrilled, "Go, gol darn ye!" They went, like two scared rabbits down the smooth, yellow stretch of packed sand.
The cruel rider has kept the bit in his horse's mouth for two centuries. Unbridle him, for a minute, if you please, and wash his mouth with water. Or stay, reader, unhorse me that marble emperor; knock me those marble feet from those marble stirrups of Charlemagne. The sounds ahead strengthened, and were now too clearly the sounds of wheels. Who and what could it be?
We wired Kiowa early this morning and arrested Fisher. They've found the money, and he has confessed, too." "But the poncho and the red kerchief?" protested Carr. "And he had no stirrups!" "Oh, Fisher had the make-up all right," laughed Crosby; "Henderson says Fisher's the 'only, original' Red Rider. And as for the stirrups, I'm afraid that's my fault.
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