trampling,
shouting, cursing, torn horses, wounded men, dust, and confusion. Then
the horsemen turned back, musket bullets followed them, men reeled from
the saddles, horses stumbled, the pikemen at the lower end of the street
shook themselves and cheered. They had tasted victory. A louder cheer
followed. Another body of pikemen, true almost to the moment of their
time, marched in along the Carrickfergus Road and joined M'Cracken.
The whole body moved forward together. Down the street to meet them
thundered the dragoons who had brought the cannon in across the bridge.
Hope's musketeers fired again, but no bullets could stop the furious
charge. The dragoons were on the pikes--among the pike men, There was
stabbing and cutting, pike and sabre clashed. Again the cavalry were
driven back, again the musket bullets followed them--musket bullets
fired by marksmen. M'Cracken, at the head of his men, pushed forward.
The dragoons took shelter, the English artillery and infantry opened
fire. The street was swept with grape-shot and bullets.

Neal, in the front rank of Hope's men, was loading and firing rapidly.
He heard a shout behind him.

"Way there, make way!"

He turned. Donald Ward and two men with him had got one of their
six-pounders mounted on a country cart. They dragged the gun to the
middle of the road. Donald, sweating and dusty, but calm and alert, with
a grim smile on his face, laid the gun, loaded, fired. Again he fired.
The gun was well aimed. His shot ploughed its way among the men who
served the English guns, but at the second discharge a round shot flung
it from its carriage and laid it useless on the road. The man who stood
beside it cursed and flung his hands up in despair. Donald Ward turned
quickly.

"Back," he said, "get the other gun."

The pikemen pressed on against the storm of grape and cannister and
bullets. The guns ceased firing to let the dragoons charge. Again the
pikemen knelt to receive them, and flung them back. At last the wall of
the churchyard was reached. The pikemen leaped into the churchyard and
breathed in safety. A flag was raised above the wall, a green flag. A
wild cheer greeted it. Hope shouted an order to his men. They rushed
forward along the ground that had been so hardly won, and took their
places with their comrades behind the wall. Leaning over it, or finding
loopholes in the rough masonry, they opened fire on the infantry before
them. A large body of pikemen crossed the r