party to charge across the
road. They came with a rush in close order, and were checked, at the
point where the hedge had been levelled, by a withering fire from the
loopholes and attic windows. Four men dropped. Two ladders reached the
walls, one of them carried by a couple of men, who planted it, and then,
finding themselves unsupported, ran back to the main body. Six men with
the second ladder reached the wall, dropping a comrade on the way, and
climbed it. The first man leapt gallantly down among the defenders and
fell on the flags of the courtlage, breaking his ankle. The second, as he
poised himself on the coping, was picked off by a shot from the attics and
toppled backwards. The others stood by the foot of the ladder bawling for
support.

But the momentary dismay of the main body had been fatal. Each man at the
loopholes had two guns, and each pair an attendant to reload for them.
Before the soldiers could pull themselves together a second volley poured
from the loop-holes, and again three men dropped. One or two belated
shots followed the volley, and a moment later the captain in command, as
he waved his men forward, let drop his sword, clenched his fists high
above him, and fell headlong in the roadway across their feet. Instinct
told them that the course to which he had been yelling them on was, after
all, the safest--to rush the road between two volleys and get close under
the wall. Once there, they were safe from the marksmen, who could not
depress their guns sufficiently to take aim. And so, with a shout, at
length they carried the road; but too late to recover the first ladder,
the foot of which swung suddenly high in air. This ladder was a tall one,
overtopping the wall by several feet; and Pascoe, remembering the
wain-rope lying beneath the ash tree, had run for it, cleverly lassoed its
projecting top, and, with two men helping, jerked it high and dragged it
inboard with a long slide and a crash.

There were now about a hundred soldiers at the foot of the wall, and the
fate of Steens appeared to be sealed, when help came as from the clouds.
Throughout the struggle forms had been flitting in the rear of the
soldiers. The fog had concealed from the Sheriff that he was fighting, as
his predecessor had fought, within a ring of spectators many hundreds in
number; and to-day not a few of these spectators had brought guns.
It is said that in the hottest of the fray Trevarthen broke out from the