him, from out of the darkness behind him there broke suddenly a
shouting and pounding of hoofs, and close in front of me (but hidden
by the hedge) a troop of horsemen clattered down from the farther
slope and up the lane where my comrades were gathered.

If for a moment I doubted what it all might mean, a couple of
pistol-shots, followed by a loose volley that mixt itself with oaths
and yells, all too quickly put this out of doubt. My men were being
charged, without question or challenge, by a troop of the enemy,
while separated by a quarter of a mile of darkness and stiff rising
ground from me, who alone carried their credentials. Little need to
say in what hurry I wheeled my mare about to the slope, struck spur,
dragged my trumpet loose on its sling and blew, as best I could, the
call that both armies accepted for note of parley. Belike (let me do
the villains this credit), with the jolt and heave of the mare's
shoulders knocking the breath out of me, I sounded it ill, or in
the noise and scuffle they heard confusedly and missed heeding.
The firing continued, at any rate, and before I gained the gate the
fight had swept up the lane.

I swung out upon the hard stones and dashed after it. But the enemy,
by this, had my fellows on the run, and were driving them at stretch
gallop. To worsen my plight, as I pursued I caught sound of hoofs
pounding behind and, as it seemed, overtaking me; supposed that a
horseman was riding me down; and, reining the mare back fiercely,
slued about to meet his onset. It proved to be the poor pack-horse I
had left in the valley! He must have galloped like a racer; but now
he came to a halt, and thrust his poor bewildered face towards me
through the darkness. Commending him to the devil, I wheeled about
once more and struck spur; and as I galloped, he galloped anew
behind.

This diversion had cost me a good fifty yards. I knew well enough
that the lane sooner or later must lead out into the high-road, and
made sure that if my fellows gained it first they would head back for
Farnham. (What would befall me I left to Providence!) But some two
or three of the enemy must have raced ahead and cut off that retreat;
for when I came to it the way to the right lay open indeed, but the
whole welter was pounding down the road to the left, straight for
Alton. Again I followed, and in less than two hundred yards was
pressing close upon three or four of the rearmost riders. This
seemed to me