from the peasants. 'Shoot upon him! Shoot down the false
Amalekite!' they shrieked. 'He hath gone to join his kind! He hath
delivered us up into the hands of the enemy! Judas! Judas!' As to the
horsemen, who were still forming up for a charge and waiting for the
flanking party to get into position, they sat still and silent, not
knowing what to make of the gaily-dressed cavalier who was speeding
towards them.

We were not left long in doubt, however. He had no sooner reached the
spot where the cornet had fallen than he sprang from his horse and
helped himself to the dead man's pistols, and to the belt which
contained his powder and ball. Mounting at his leisure, amid a shower of
bullets which puffed up the white dust all around him, he rode onwards
towards the dragoons and discharged one of his pistols at them. Wheeling
round he politely raised his cap, and galloped back to us, none the
worse for his adventure, though a ball had grazed his horse's fetlock
and another had left a hole in the skirt of his riding-coat. The
peasants raised a shout of jubilation as he rode in, and from that day
forward our friend was permitted to wear his gay trappings and to bear
himself as he would, without being suspected of having mounted the
livery of Satan or of being wanting in zeal for the cause of the saints.

'They are coming,' cried Saxon. 'Let no man draw trigger until he sees
me shoot. If any does, I shall send a bullet through him, though it was
my last shot and the troopers were amongst us.'

As our leader uttered this threat and looked grimly round upon us with
an evident intention of executing it, a shrill blare of a bugle burst
from the horsemen in front of us, and was answered by those upon our
flank. At the signal both bodies set spurs to their horses and dashed
down upon us at the top of their speed. Those in the field were delayed
for a few moments, and thrown into some disorder, by finding that the
ground immediately in front of them was soft and boggy, but having
made their way through it they re-formed upon the other side and rode
gallantly at the hedge. Our own opponents, having a clear course before
them, never slackened for an instant, but came thundering down with a
jingling of harness and a tempest of oaths upon our rude barricades.

Ah, my children! when a man in his age tries to describe such things as
these, and to make others see what he has seen, it is only then that he
understands what a small stock of l