se succession. Louder and louder grew the
shouting, as the men closed in towards a common point, and, in half
an hour after the signal had been given, all met.

"What sport have you had, father?" Harry asked, as he came up to
Captain Jervoise.

"We killed seventeen wolves and four bears, with, what is more
important, six stags. I do not know whether we are going to have
another beat."

It soon turned out that this was the king's intention, and the
troops marched along the edge of the forest. Charlie was in the
front of his company, the king with the cavalry a few hundred yards
ahead, when, from a dip of ground on the right, a large body of
horsemen suddenly appeared.

"Russians!" Captain Jervoise exclaimed, and shouted to the men, who
were marching at ease, to close up.

The king did not hesitate a moment, but, at the head of his fifty
cavalry, charged right down upon the Russians, who were at least
five hundred strong. The little body disappeared in the melee, and
then seemed to be swallowed up.

"Keep together, shoulder to shoulder, men. Double!" and the company
set off at a run.

When they came close to the mass of horsemen, they poured in a
volley, and then rushed forward, hastily fitting the short pikes
they carried into their musket barrels; for, as yet, the modern
form of bayonets was not used. The Russians fought obstinately, but
the infantry pressed their way step by step through them, until
they reached the spot where the king, with his little troop of
cavalry, were defending themselves desperately from the attacks of
the Russians.

The arrival of the infantry decided the contest, and the Russians
began to draw off, the king hastening the movement by plunging into
the midst of them with his horsemen.

Charlie was on the flank of the company as it advanced, and, after
running through a Russian horseman with the short pike that was
carried by officers, he received a tremendous blow on his steel
cap, that stretched him insensible on the ground. When he
recovered, he felt that he was being carried, and soon awoke to the
fact that he was a prisoner.

After a long ride, the Russians arrived at Plescow. They had lost
some sixty men in the fight. Charlie was the only prisoner taken.
He was, on dismounting, too weak to stand, but he was half carried
and half dragged to the quarters of the Russian officer in command.
The latter addressed him, but, finding that he was not understood,
sent for an officer w