rear of Steens and marshalled them. Certain it is that no sooner were the
soldiers huddled beneath the wall than a bullet sang down the road from
the north, then another, then a volley; and as they faced round in panic
on this flanking fire, another volley swept up the road from the south and
took them in the rear.

They could see no enemy. Likely enough the enemy could not see them.
But, packed as they were, the cross-fire could not fail to be deadly.
The men in the courtlage had drawn back towards the house as the ladder
began to sway above the wall. They waited, taking aim, but no head showed
above the coping. They heard, and wondered at, the firing in the road:
then, while still they waited, one by one the ladders were withdrawn.

The soldiers, maddened by the fire, having lost their captain, and being
now out of hand, parted into two bodies and rushed, the one up the other
down the road, to get at grips with their new assailants. But it is ill
chasing an invisible foe, and a gun is easily tossed over a hedge.
After pursuing maybe for quarter of a mile they met indeed two or three
old men, innocent-looking but flushed about the face, sauntering towards
the house with their hands in their pockets; and because their hands when
examined were black and smelt of gunpowder, these innocent-looking old men
went back in custody to the post where the bugles were sounding the
recall. The soldiers turned back sullenly enough, but presently quickened
their pace as a yellow glare in the fog gave the summons a new meaning.
Their camp was ablaze from end to end!

This was a bitter pill for the Sheriff. He had come in force, determined
to prove to the rebels that they had a stronger man than Sir James Tillie
to deal with, and he had failed even more ignominiously. He cursed the
inhabitants of West Cornwall, and he cursed the fog; but he was not a
fool, and he wasted no time in a wild-goose chase over an unknown country
where his men could not see twenty yards before them. Having saved what
he could of the tents and trodden out the embers, he consulted with the
young lieutenant now in command and came to two resolutions: to send to
Pendennis Castle for a couple of light six-pounders, and, since these
could not arrive until the morrow, to keep the defence well harassed
during the remaining hours of daylight, not attempting a second assault in
force, but holding his men in shelter and feeling around the position for
a weak po