in a humor for
venerie we may promise them some sport ere they sound the mort over us.
But there is a hill in the centre of the gorge on which we might take
our stand."

"I marked it yester-night," said Felton, "and no better spot could be
found for our purpose, for it is very steep at the back. It is but a
bow-shot to the left, and, indeed, I can see the shadow of it."

The whole Company, leading their horses, passed across to the small hill
which loomed in front of them out of the mist. It was indeed admirably
designed for defence, for it sloped down in front, all jagged and
boulder-strewn, while it fell away in a sheer cliff of a hundred feet or
more. On the summit was a small uneven plateau, with a stretch across of
a hundred paces, and a depth of half as much again.

"Unloose the horses!" said Sir Nigel. "We have no space for them, and if
we hold our own we shall have horses and to spare when this day's work
is done. Nay, keep yours, my fair sirs, for we may have work for them.
Aylward, Johnston, let your men form a harrow on either side of the
ridge. Sir Oliver and you, my Lord Angus, I give you the right wing, and
the left to you, Sir Simon, and to you, Sir Richard Causton. I and Sir
William Felton will hold the centre with our men-at-arms. Now order
the ranks, and fling wide the banners, for our souls are God's and our
bodies the king's, and our swords for Saint George and for England!"

Sir Nigel had scarcely spoken when the mist seemed to thin in the
valley, and to shred away into long ragged clouds which trailed from
the edges of the cliffs. The gorge in which they had camped was a mere
wedge-shaped cleft among the hills, three-quarters of a mile deep, with
the small rugged rising upon which they stood at the further end, and
the brown crags walling it in on three sides. As the mist parted, and
the sun broke through, it gleamed and shimmered with dazzling brightness
upon the armor and headpieces of a vast body of horsemen who stretched
across the barranca from one cliff to the other, and extended backwards
until their rear guard were far out upon the plain beyond. Line after
line, and rank after rank, they choked the neck of the valley with
a long vista of tossing pennons, twinkling lances, waving plumes and
streaming banderoles, while the curvets and gambades of the chargers
lent a constant motion and shimmer to the glittering, many-colored mass.
A yell of exultation, and a forest of waving steel through