ote of a trumpet, so shrill, clear,
and piercing, that he thought he had never heard the match of it for
audibility. It was blown once, and then hurriedly a second time; and
then the clash of steel succeeded.

At this young Shelton pricked his ears, and drawing his sword, ran
forward up the hill.

Presently he came in sight of the cross, and was aware of a most fierce
encounter raging on the road before it. There were seven or eight
assailants, and but one to keep head against them; but so active and
dexterous was this one, so desperately did he charge and scatter his
opponents, so deftly keep his footing on the ice, that already, before
Dick could intervene, he had slain one, wounded another, and kept the
whole in check.

Still, it was by a miracle that he continued his defence, and at any
moment, any accident, the least slip of foot or error of hand, his life
would be a forfeit.

"Hold ye well, sir! Here is help!" cried Richard; and forgetting that he
was alone, and that the cry was somewhat irregular, "To the Arrow! to
the Arrow!" he shouted, as he fell upon the rear of the assailants.

These were stout fellows also, for they gave not an inch at this
surprise, but faced about, and fell with astonishing fury upon Dick.
Four against one, the steel flashed about him in the starlight; the
sparks flew fiercely; one of the men opposed to him fell--in the stir of
the fight he hardly knew why; then he himself was struck across the
head, and though the steel cap below his hood protected him, the blow
beat him down upon one knee, with a brain whirling like a windmill-sail.

[Illustration: _There were seven or eight assailants, and but one to
keep head against them_]

Meanwhile the man whom he had come to rescue, instead of joining in the
conflict, had, on the first sign of intervention, leaped aback and blown
again, and yet more urgently and loudly, on that same shrill-voiced
trumpet that began the alarm. Next moment, indeed, his foes were on him,
and he was once more charging and fleeing, leaping, stabbing, dropping
to his knee, and using indifferently sword and dagger, foot and hand,
with the same unshaken courage and feverish energy and speed.

But that ear-piercing summons had been heard at last. There was a
muffled rushing in the snow; and in a good hour for Dick, who saw the
sword-points glitter already at his throat, there poured forth out of
the wood upon both sides a disorderly torrent of mounted men-at-arms,