six o'clock
Either his pursuers were baffled and distanced , or no hue and cry was yet after him ; nothing arrested them as they swept on , and the silent land lay in the stillness of morning ere toil and activity awakened . It was strangely still , strangely lonely , and the echo of the gallop seemed to beat on the stirless , breathless solitude . As the light broke and grew clearer and clearer , Cecil 's face in it was white as death as he galloped through the mists , a hunted man , on whose head a price was set ; but it was quite calm still , and very resolute -- there was no `` harking back '' in it . They had raced nigh twenty English miles by the time the chimes of a village were striking six o'clock ; it was the only group of dwellings they had ventured near in their flight ; the leaded lattices were thrust open with a hasty clang , and women 's heads looked out as the iron tramp of the hunters ' feet struck fire from the stones . A few cries were raised ; one burgher called them to know their errand ; they answered nothing , but traversed the street with lightning speed , gone from sight almost ere they were seen . A league farther on was a wooded bottom , all dark and silent , with a brook murmuring through it under the leafy shade of lilies and the tangle of water-plants ; there Cecil checked the King and threw himself out of saddle . `` He is not quite himself yet , '' he murmured , as he loosened the girths and held back the delicate head from the perilous cold of the water to which the horse stretched so eagerly ; he thought more of Forest King than he thought , even in that hour , of himself .