and
scythesmen threw themselves down at his command, while the musqueteers
knelt in front of them, loading and firing, with nothing to aim at save
the burning matches of the enemy's pieces, which could be seen twinkling
through the darkness. All along, both to the right and the left, a
rolling fire had broken out, coming in short, quick volleys from the
soldiers, and in a continuous confused rattle from the peasants. On the
further wing our four guns had been brought into play, and we could hear
their dull growling in the distance.

'Sing, brothers, sing!' cried our stout-hearted chaplain, Master Joshua
Pettigrue, bustling backwards and forwards among the prostrate ranks.
'Let us call upon the Lord in our day of trial!' The men raised a loud
hymn of praise, which swelled into a great chorus as it was taken up by
the Taunton burghers upon our right and the miners upon our left. At
the sound the soldiers on the other side raised a fierce huzza, and the
whole air was full of clamour.

Our musqueteers had been brought to the very edge of the Bussex Rhine,
and the Royal troops had also advanced as far as they were able, so that
there were not five pikes'-lengths between the lines. Yet that short
distance was so impassable that, save for the more deadly fire, a
quarter of a mile might have divided us. So near were we that the
burning wads from the enemy's muskets flew in flakes of fire over
our heads, and we felt upon our faces the hot, quick flush of their
discharges. Yet though the air was alive with bullets, the aim of the
soldiers was too high for our kneeling ranks, and very few of the men
were struck. For our part, we did what we could to keep the barrels of
our muskets from inclining upwards. Saxon, Sir Gervas, and I walked
our horses up and down without ceasing, pushing them level with our
sword-blades, and calling on the men to aim steadily and slowly. The
groans and cries from the other side of the ditch showed that some, at
least, of our bullets had not been fired in vain.

'We hold our own in this quarter,' said I to Saxon. 'It seems to me that
their fire slackens.'

'It is their horse that I fear,' he answered. 'They can avoid the ditch,
since they come from the hamlets on the flank. They may be upon us at
any time.'

'Hullo, sir!' shouted Sir Gervas, reining up his steed upon the very
brink of the ditch, and raising his cap in salute to a mounted officer
upon the other side. 'Can you tell me if we have the