the valley not two hundred yards away, and that unless the alarm weregiven, the little force so calmly going through their manoeuvres in thepark would be surprised. At the same moment, he saw that he had beennoticed before he caught sight of the approaching enemy, but he did nothesitate. Raising the heavy piece, he fired, and at the shot thegrazing horse tossed its head and cantered to his side, leaving itsmaster to take his chance.
"He'll get no wine as a prisoner," said Fred, bitterly, as he spurredhis horse to a gallop, just as shot after shot from the other outpostscarried on his alarm--while, following a shout to him to surrender, cameshots that were not intended to give the alarm, but to bring him down.
Fred glanced back once, and saw that the advance guard of the enemy werein full pursuit, a sight which made him urge on his steed to its utmost,while as he glanced back on getting to the top of the next hill, hecould see that the enemy had divided into two bodies, and throwing offall concealment, they were thundering on, so as to get up with those whowould spread the alarm, intending to spread it themselves, and to adangerous extent.
"They'll overtake me," muttered Fred, as he looked back and saw how wellsome of the leading men were mounted, and also that some of those in themain body were better mounted still, and were rapidly diminishing thedistance between them and their advance guard.
Right and left and well ahead of him he could see their own outpostsgalloping in toward the centre, but, strive how he would, he felt thathe must be overtaken long before he could reach the Hall.
"They will not kill me," he said to himself. "They would only make aprisoner of me, unless some fierce Cavalier cuts me down."
"But I have saved them from a surprise," he continued; and he once moretried to get a little speed out of the worn-out horse he rode.
It was a neck-or-nothing gallop, and over and over again Fred would havebeen glad to change his mount, and leap on to the trained horse whichkept its place riderless by his side. But the enemy were thundering onin full pursuit, and to have paused meant certain capture.
On they rode, the Cavaliers behind, with their blades flashing, andtheir feathers streaming, and in the excitement of the race he could nothelp thinking of the gallant appearance they made, as they spurred oneagainst the other in their reckless endeavour to overtake him.
He had forsaken the road, and turned on to the rough moorland, a moredifficult way, but he and his horse were more at home there, and he knewhow to avoid the roughest rocky portions, and the pieces of bog, whilethere was always the hope that the pursuers might try to make some cutto intercept him, and so find themselves foundered in the mire.
The race had lasted some minutes now, and the fugitive was in full hopethat the alarm had been spread by the inner line of vedettes, when abright thought flashed across his brain.
He glanced back, and could see about a dozen of the Cavaliers some fortyyards behind, and a few hundred yards behind them a couple of regiments.
"They will follow my pursuers," he argued; and as he came to thatconclusion, he drew his right rein, and bore off a little, makingstraight for a deep hollow where the peat lay thick, and it wasimpossible for a horse to cross.
If they followed him there, he could swerve off to the right again as hereached the treacherous ground, and edge safely round it, while the mainbody of his pursuers would in all probability plunge in.
"That would ensure their defeat," he said to himself, as in imaginationhe saw the gallant regiments floundering saddle deep in the black,half-liquid peat.
As he had hoped, so it seemed to be. His nearest pursuers turned offafter him, so did the main body, and, almost indifferent now as tocapture, so long as he could save those at the park, he turned to lookback, when, just as the Cavaliers were thundering on to destruction, onehorseman dashed in front, waving his plumed hat, and meeting them--sending all but about half a score round to the left, so that theyskirted the morass, just as they were on the point of charging in.
"Some one who knows the danger," muttered Fred, as he galloped on."Scarlett, of course. It must have been he."
Another five minutes, with the foremost men not half a dozen yardsbehind, brought Fred to the top of a hill, beyond which he could see thepark, and to his horror the general's men were only then hurrying upinto formation, with their officers galloping excitedly to and fro.
"Hold out, good old horse," panted Fred,--as he glanced back once moreto see that capture must be certain now. "Another five minutes, and Icould be with them," he sobbed out breathlessly; and, as if his horseunderstood him, or else nerved by the sight of his fellows so near athand, he lay out like a greyhound, just as a trumpet blast rang out onFred's left from the main body of the Cavaliers, a call whose effect wasthat Fred's pursuers who had skirted the right of the morass, turned offto the left, and rode on so as to regain their places in the ranks,where their presence would be of more value than in pursuing a fewscattered outposts.
To an ordinary commander, the act of the Royalist leader seemed uttermadness. The horses of his men were half-blown by a long gallop, andthey were about to charge a body of sturdy cavalry, whose mounts wererested and fresh.
But there was no hesitation. As they drew near, the trumpets rang out,steel flashed, feathers flew, the horses snorted, and with a wildhurrah! the Royalist troops literally raced against the advancingParliamentarians. There was a shock, the crash of steel, a roar as ofthunder, horse and man went headlong down on the green turf of the Hallpark, and to General Hedley's chagrin, and in spite of the valour of hisofficers, and the stern stuff of which his men were composed, thegallantry and dash of the first regiment was such that it seemed as if awedge had been driven through his ranks, and his discomfiture wascompleted by the following charge of the second Cavalier line.
One minute his well-trained horsemen were advancing in good formation tomeet the shock of the Royalists, the next, discipline seemed to be at anend, and the Parliamentarians were in full flight.
CHAPTER THIRTY ONE.
SAMSON TO THE RESCUE.
Unscathed, in spite of the terrible dangers of the _melee_, Fred, aftersucceeding in reaching his companions, joined them in their charge, andwas driven back in their reverse, riding headlong as they rode in whatwas hardly a retreat, but rather a running fight, till seeing hisopportunity, he made for where he could see General Hedley striving, incompany with the officers, to check the retrograde movement, butstriving in vain.
For there was a wild valour and dash exhibited by the Cavaliers, whichfor the time being carried all before them. No sooner had somethinglike a rally been made by the Parliamentarians, than the Royalistscharged at them in a headlong rush, which would have ended in almosttotal destruction with some troops.
But there was a sturdy solidity about the followers of General Hedley,and the result of these charges was that, while some fell, the otherswere merely moved here and there, and as soon as their assailants hadpassed on they seemed to hang together again, driven outward always, butnot scattered. In fact, for mile after mile the running fight wascontinued, growing slower and slower as horse and man were wearied out,till, had a minute's grace been afforded them, General Hedley felt thathe could have gathered his men together, and by one vigorous charge havechanged the state of affairs.
But the opportunity for re-formation was never afforded, and the greatcrowd of mounted men of both parties rode on mingled together inconfusion, right over the wild moorland countryside. The number ofindividual combats was almost countless, and their track was marked bythe heather being dotted with fallen men, the wounded, and often thedismounted, and by exhausted or hopelessly foundered horses.
And still the fight went on, with the attacks growing more feeble, tillthe Cavaliers' horses could hardly be spurred into a canter, and many aone stopped short.
It was a strange flight, in which the beaten gave way slowly, and withan obstinate English tenacity of purpose, which made them cling to theirenemies, and refuse to acknowledge their rout. They were broken up,and, according to all preconc
eived notions of cavalry encounters, theyought to have scattered and fled, but they only went on as they weredriven and broken up in knots, and the Cavalier leader knew perfectlywell that the moment he ceased his efforts, the other party would, as itwere, flow together again and return their charge, perhaps with fatalresults to his little force, for his men were growing completelyexhausted.
"If I could only get a troop together!" muttered General Hedley betweenhis teeth; and again and again he tried to rally his men. But theCavaliers dashed at them directly, the efforts proved vain, and the_melee_ continued--a struggle in which order was absent, and men struckand rode at each other, broke their weapons, and often engaged in amounted wrestling bout, which ended in a pair of adversaries fallingheadlong to the ground. Fred would have been out of the skirmish earlyin the engagement from the exhaustion of his horse, but as the pace grewslower, the poor brute recovered itself somewhat, and