el time hath dried up her
business, and she hath need of some little nursing herself.'

'If I live and you should fall, I shall do what may be done for her,'
said I. 'Have you aught else to say?'

'Only that Hacker of Paul's Yard is the best for vests,' he answered.
'It is a small piece of knowledge, yet like most other knowledge it hath
been bought and paid for. One other thing! I have a trinket or two left
which might serve as a gift for the pretty Puritan maid, should our
friend lead her to the altar. Od's my life, but she will make him read
some queer books! How now, Colonel, why are we stuck out on the moor
like a row of herons among the sedges?'

'They are ordering the line for the attack,' said Saxon, who had ridden
up during our conversation. 'Donnerblitz! Who ever saw a camp so
exposed to an onfall? Oh for twelve hundred good horse--for an hour of
Wessenburg's Pandours! Would I not trample them down until their camp
was like a field of young corn after a hail-storm!'

'May not our horse advance?' I asked.

The old soldier gave a deep snort of disdain. 'If this fight is to be
won it must be by our foot,' said he; 'what can we hope for from such
cavalry? Keep your men well in hand, for we may have to bear the brunt
of the King's dragoons. A flank attack would fall upon us, for we are in
the post of honour.'

'There are troops to the right of us,' I answered, peering through the
darkness.

'Aye! the Taunton burghers and the Frome peasants. Our brigade covers
the right flank. Next us are the Mendip miners, nor could I wish for
better comrades, if their zeal do not outrun their discretion. They are
on their knees in the mud at this moment.'

'They will fight none the worse for that,' I remarked; 'but surely the
troops are advancing!'

'Aye, aye!' cried Saxon joyously, plucking out his sword, and tying
his handkerchief round the handle to strengthen his grip. 'The hour has
come! Forwards!'

Very slowly and silently we crept on through the dense fog, our feet
splashing and slipping in the sodden soil. With all the care which
we could take, the advance of so great a number of men could not be
conducted without a deep sonorous sound from the thousands of marching
feet. Ahead of us were splotches of ruddy light twinkling through the
fog which marked the Royal watch-fires. Immediately in front in a dense
column our own horse moved forwards. Of a sudden out of the darkness
there came a sharp challenge and a sh