galloped before us on
the road to Winchester; along which, after close on an hour's chase,
our trumpets recalled us as our infantry forced the doors of Alton
Church, and cut up Colonel Bolle's regiment that still resisted
there. The Earl of Crawford left a good half of his wine behind, and
two days later our general, who had sent for me, showed me this
letter--

'To Sir W. Waller.

'Sir,--I hope your gaining of Alton cost you dear. It was your
lot to drink of your own sack, which I never intended to have
left for you. I pray you favour me so much as to send me your
own chirurgeon, and upon my honour I will send you a person
suitable to his exchange.--Sir, your servant,

'Crawford.'

From this happy success it was my fortune, that same afternoon, to
lead our troop back to Farnham. Coming on the way to the entrance of
a lane on our right, I avoided the high-road for the by-path.
It twisted downhill to the river, crossed it, and by-and-by in a dip
of the farther slope, brought me in sight of a round cottage of two
stories. No smoke arose from it, though the twilight was drawing in
upon a frost that searched our bones as we rode. No inhabitant
showed a face. But I waved a hand in passing, and I am mistaken if a
hand did not respond from the upper story--by drawing a shutter
close.

RED VELVET.

[August, 1644. The Story is told by Ralph Medhope, Captain of the
Twenty-second (or Gray-coat) Troop of Horse in the Parliament Army,
then serving in Cornwall.]

We were eight men in the picket. My cornet, Ned Penkevill, rode
beside me; our trumpeter, Israel Hutson, a pace or two behind; with
five troopers following. I could tell you their names, but there is
no need, for I alone of the eight come into the story. The rest rode
to their death that night, and met it in the dawn, like men.

We rode northward and inland along the downs high over the left bank
of the Fowey River; with good turf and heather underfoot, and with
the moon behind our right shoulders. She was the harvest moon, now
in her last quarter, and from her altitude I guessed it, by west
country time, to be well past four of the morning or within an hour
of daybreak. But because she hung bright up here, we pricked forward
warily, using every pit and hollow. We had left our breast-pieces,
back-pieces, and gorgets behind us, with Penkevill's standard, for
the main troop to carry; and rode in plain gray