lor regiment, the North Somerset men,
the first Taunton regiment of burghers, the Mendip and Bagworthy miners,
the lace and wool-workers of Honiton, Wellington, and Ottery St. Mary;
the woodmen, the graziers, the marsh-men, and the men from the Quantock
district. Behind were the guns and the baggage, with our own brigade and
four colours of horse as a rearguard. On our march we could see the red
coats of Feversham keeping pace with us upon the other side of the Avon.
A large body of his horse and dragoons had forded the stream and hovered
upon our skirts, but Saxon and Sir Stephen covered the baggage so
skilfully, and faced round so fiercely with such a snarl of musketry
whenever they came too nigh, that they never ventured to charge home.

Chapter XXVIII. Of the Fight in Wells Cathedral

I am fairly tied to the chariot-wheels of history now, my dear children,
and must follow on with name and place and date, whether my tale suffer
by it or no. With such a drama as this afoot it were impertinent to
speak of myself, save in so far as I saw or heard what may make these
old scenes more vivid to you. It is no pleasant matter for me to dwell
upon, yet, convinced as I am that there is no such thing as chance
either in the great or the little things of this world, I am very sure
that the sacrifices of these brave men were not thrown away, and that
their strivings were not as profitless as might at first sight appear.
If the perfidious race of Stuart is not now seated upon the throne, and
if religion in England is still a thing of free growth, we may, to my
thinking, thank these Somerset yokels for it, who first showed how small
a thing would shake the throne of an unpopular monarch. Monmouth's
army was but the vanguard of that which marched throe years later into
London, when James and his cruel ministers were flying as outcasts over
the face of the earth.

On the night of June 27, or rather early in the morning of June 28, we
reached the town of Frome, very wet and miserable, for the rain had come
on again, and all the roads were quagmires. From this next day we pushed
on once more to Wells, where we spent the night and the whole of the
next day, to give the men time to get their clothes dry, and to recover
themselves after their privations.

In the forenoon a parade of our Wiltshire regiment was held in the
Cathedral Close, when Monmouth praised it, as it well deserved, for the
soldierly progress made in so short a tim