yards on each side of the
track. Beyond the swamp was very deep for thirty or forty yards on both
sides, and then it was again somewhat firmer.

Harry decided to post twenty-five men behind these quagmires. Their
orders would be to remain perfectly quiet until the column, passing the
first morass, should have entered the second; then, when Harry, with the
main body, opened fire upon them there, they were to commence upon the
flanks of the column.

Returning to the camp, Harry sent forty men with shovels, obtained in
the village, to dig a trench, twelve feet wide, and as deep as they
could get for the water, across the track, at the near side of the
morass.

At nightfall, leaving twenty-five men under William Long in front of the
castle, with orders to let none issue forth, and to shoot down any who
might make the attempt, Harry marched out with the rest of his command.
Crossing the ditch which had been dug, he led fifty forward, and posted
them, as he had planned with Leslie; with twenty-five, he took up his
own station behind the breastwork formed by the earth thrown out from
the trench. The remaining fifty he bade advance as far as they safely
could into the swamp on either side. Two hours later a dull sound was
heard, the occasional clink of arms, and the muffled tread of many feet
on the soft ground. The Roundhead infantry, two hundred strong, led the
way, followed by their horse, the guide walking with the officer at the
head of the column. When it approached within twenty yards of the ditch
Harry gave the word, and a flash of fire streamed from the top of the
earthwork. At the same moment those on either side opened fire into the
flanks of the column, while the fifty men beyond poured their fire into
the cavalry in the rear of the column.

For a moment all was confusion. The Roundheads had anticipated no
attack, and were taken wholly by surprise. The guide had fallen at the
first discharge and all were ignorant of the ground on which they found
themselves. They were, however, trained to conflict. Those on the flank
of the column endeavored to penetrate the morass, but they immediately
sank to the middle, and had much ado to regain the solid track. The head
of the column, pouring a volley into their invisible foes, leveled their
pikes, and rushed to the assault. A few steps, and they fell into a deep
hole, breast high with water, and on whose slippery bottom their feet
could scarce find standing. In vain they