our leader, working with the coolness which only a
long apprenticeship to war can give. 'Now, friends, cut the traces!'
A dozen knives were at work in a moment, and the kicking, struggling
animals scampered off, leaving their burdens behind them. Saxon sprang
off his horse and set the example in dragging the waggon across the
roadway, while some of the peasants, under the direction of Reuben
Lockarby and of Master Joshua Pettigrue, arranged a couple of other
carts to block the way fifty yards further down. The latter precaution
was to guard against the chance of the royal horse riding through
the fields and attacking us from behind. So speedily was the scheme
conceived and carried out, that within a very few minutes of the first
alarm we found ourselves protected front and rear by a lofty barricade,
while within this improvised fortress was a garrison of a hundred and
fifty men.

'What firearms have we amongst us?' asked Saxon hurriedly.

'A dozen pistols at the most,' replied the elderly Puritan, who was
addressed by his companions as Hope-above Williams. 'John Rodway,
the coachman, hath his blunderbuss. There are also two godly men from
Hungerford, who are keepers of game, and who have brought their pieces
with them.'

'They are here, sir,' cried another, pointing to two stout, bearded
fellows, who were ramming charges into their long-barrelled muskets.
'Their names are Wat and Nat Millman.'

'Two who can hit their mark are worth a battalion who shoot wide,' our
leader remarked, 'Get under the waggon, my friends, and rest your pieces
upon the spokes. Never draw trigger until the sons of Belial are within
three pikes' length of ye.'

'My brother and I,' quoth one of them, 'can hit a running doe at two
hundred paces. Our lives are in the hands of the Lord, but two, at
least, of these hired butchers we shall send before us.'

'As gladly as ever we slew stoat or wild-cat,' cried the other, slipping
under the waggon. 'We are keeping the Lord's preserves now, brother Wat,
and truly these are some of the vermin that infest them.'

'Let all who have pistols line the waggon,' said Saxon, tying his mare
to the hedge--an example which we all followed. 'Clarke, do you take
charge upon the right with Sir Gervas, while Lockarby assists Master
Pettigrue upon the left. Ye others shall stand behind with stones.
Should they break through our barricades, slash at the horses with your
scythes. Once down, the riders are no match f