the page. "He hath observed,
Sir Richard, that ye went unarmed."

Dick, with a glow at his heart at being so addressed, got to his feet
and, with the assistance of the page, donned the defensive coat. Even as
he did so, two arrows rattled harmlessly upon the plates, and a third
struck down the page, mortally wounded, at his feet.

Meantime the whole body of the enemy had been steadily drawing nearer
across the market-place; and by this time were so close at hand that Dick
gave the order to return their shot. Immediately, from behind the
barrier and from the windows of the houses, a counterblast of arrows
sped, carrying death. But the Lancastrians, as if they had but waited
for a signal, shouted loudly in answer; and began to close at a run upon
the barrier, the horsemen still hanging back, with visors lowered.

Then followed an obstinate and deadly struggle, hand to hand. The
assailants, wielding their falchions with one hand, strove with the other
to drag down the structure of the barricade. On the other side, the
parts were reversed; and the defenders exposed themselves like madmen to
protect their rampart. So for some minutes the contest raged almost in
silence, friend and foe falling one upon another. But it is always the
easier to destroy; and when a single note upon the tucket recalled the
attacking party from this desperate service, much of the barricade had
been removed piecemeal, and the whole fabric had sunk to half its height,
and tottered to a general fall.

And now the footmen in the market-place fell back, at a run, on every
side. The horsemen, who had been standing in a line two deep, wheeled
suddenly, and made their flank into their front; and as swift as a
striking adder, the long, steel-clad column was launched upon the ruinous
barricade.

Of the first two horsemen, one fell, rider and steed, and was ridden down
by his companions. The second leaped clean upon the summit of the
rampart, transpiercing an archer with his lance. Almost in the same
instant he was dragged from the saddle and his horse despatched.

And then the full weight and impetus of the charge burst upon and
scattered the defenders. The men-at-arms, surmounting their fallen
comrades, and carried onward by the fury of their onslaught, dashed
through Dick's broken line and poured thundering up the lane beyond, as a
stream bestrides and pours across a broken dam.

Yet was the fight not over. Still, in the narrow jaws of