which rolled itself towards the
city walls, and at last was poured into the ample and undefended breach
through which the Liegeois had sallied.

Quentin made more than human exertions to overtake the special object of
his pursuit, who was still in his sight, striving, by voice and
example, to renew the battle, and bravely supported by a chosen party of
lanzknechts. Le Balafre and several of his comrades attached themselves
to Quentin, much marvelling at the extraordinary gallantry displayed by
so young a soldier. On the very brink of the breach, De la Marck--for
it was himself--succeeded in effecting a momentary stand, and repelling
some of the most forward of the pursuers. He had a mace of iron in his
hand, before which everything seemed to go down, and was so much covered
with blood that it was almost impossible to discern those bearings on
his shield which had so much incensed Dunois.

Quentin now found little difficulty in singling him out, for the
commanding situation of which he had possessed himself, and the use he
made of his terrible mace, caused many of the assailants to seek safer
points of attack than that where so desperate a defender presented
himself. But Quentin, to whom the importance attached to victory over
this formidable antagonist was better known, sprung from his horse at
the bottom of the breach, and, letting the noble animal, the gift of
the Duke of Orleans, run loose through the tumult, ascended the ruins to
measure swords with the Boar of Ardennes. The latter, as if he had seen
his intention, turned towards Durward with mace uplifted; and they were
on the point of encounter, when a dreadful shout of triumph, of tumult,
and of despair, announced that the besiegers were entering the city
at another point, and in the rear of those who defended the breach.
Assembling around him, by voice and bugle, the desperate partners of his
desperate fortune, De la Marck, at those appalling sounds, abandoned the
breach, and endeavoured to effect his retreat towards a part of the city
from which he might escape to the other side of the Maes. His immediate
followers formed a deep body of well disciplined men, who, never having
given quarter, were resolved now not to ask it, and who, in that hour of
despair, threw themselves into such firm order that their front occupied
the whole breadth of the street, through which they slowly retired,
making head from time to time, and checking the pursuers, many of
whom bega