l the armed men formed in a circle; the women occupied the
centre. Felix took his stand outside the circle by a gnarled and decayed
oak. There was just there a slight rise in the ground, which he knew
would give him some advantage in discharging his arrows, and would also
allow him a clear view. His friends earnestly entreated him to enter the
circle, and even sought to bring him within it by force, till he
explained to them that he could not shoot if so surrounded, and promised
if the gipsies charged to rush inside.

Felix unslung his quiver, and placed it on the ground before him; a
second quiver he put beside it; four or five arrows he stuck upright in
the sward, so that he could catch hold of them quickly; two arrows he
held in his left hand, another he fitted to the string. Thus prepared,
he watched the gipsies advance. They came walking their short wiry
horses to within half a mile, when they began to trot down the slope;
they could not surround the shepherds because of the steep-sided coombe
and some brushwood, and could advance only on two fronts. Felix rapidly
became so excited that his sight was affected, and his head whirled. His
heart beat with such speed that his breath seemed going. His limbs
tottered, and he dreaded lest he should faint.

His intensely nervous organization, strung up to its highest pitch,
shook him in its grasp, and his will was powerless to control it. He
felt that he should disgrace himself once more before these rugged but
brave shepherds, who betrayed not the slightest symptom of agitation.
For one hour of Oliver's calm courage and utter absence of nervousness
he would have given years of his life. His friends in the circle
observed his agitation, and renewed their entreaties to him to come
inside it. This only was needed to complete his discomfiture. He lost
his head altogether; he saw nothing but a confused mass of yellow and
red rushing towards him, for each of the gipsies wore a yellow or red
scarf, some about the body, some over the shoulder, others round the
head. They were now within three hundred yards.

A murmur from the shepherd spearmen. Felix had discharged an arrow. It
stuck in the ground about twenty paces from him. He shot again; it flew
wild and quivering, and dropped harmlessly. Another murmur; they
expressed to each other their contempt for the bow. This immediately
restored Felix; he forgot the enemy as an enemy, he forgot himself; he
thought only of his skill as