d the guide into the ditch,' the young cornet
answered. 'My Lord Grey hath ridden along the bank seeking for a ford.'

I caught a pike out of a footman's hand, and probed into the black
oozy mud, standing myself up to the waist in it, and holding Covenant's
bridle in my left hand. Nowhere could I touch bottom or find any hope of
solid foothold.

'Here, fellow!' cried Saxon, seizing a trooper by the arm. 'Make for
the rear! Gallop as though the devil were behind you! Bring up a pair
of ammunition waggons, and we shall see whether we cannot bridge this
infernal puddle.'

'If a few of us could make a lodgment upon the other side we might make
it good until help came,' said Sir Gervas, as the horseman galloped off
upon his mission.

All down the rebel line a fierce low roar of disappointment and rage
showed that the whole army had met the same obstacle which hindered
our attack. On the other side of the ditch the drums beat, the bugles
screamed, and the shouts and oaths of the officers could be heard as
they marshalled their men. Glancing lights in Chedzoy, Westonzoyland,
and the other hamlets to left and right, showed how fast the alarm
was extending. Decimus Saxon rode up and down the edge of the fosse,
pattering forth foreign oaths, grinding his teeth in his fury, and
rising now and again in his stirrups to shake his gauntleted hands at
the enemy.

'For whom are ye?' shouted a hoarse voice out of the haze.

'For the King!' roared the peasants in answer.

'For which King?' cried the voice.

'For King Monmouth!'

'Let them have it, lads!' and instantly a storm of musket bullets
whistled and sung about our ears. As the sheet of flame sprang out of
the darkness the maddened, half-broken horses dashed wildly away across
the plain, resisting the efforts of the riders to pull them up. There
are some, indeed, who say that those efforts were not very strong, and
that our troopers, disheartened at the check at the ditch, were not
sorry to show their heels to the enemy. As to my Lord Grey, I can say
truly that I saw him in the dim light among the flying squadrons, doing
all that a brave cavalier could do to bring them to a stand. Away they
went, however, thundering through the ranks of the foot and out over the
moor, leaving their companions to bear the whole brunt of the battle.

'On to your faces, men!' shouted Saxon, in a voice which rose high above
the crash of the musketry and the cries of the wounded. The pikemen