is position. Their old feuds were forgotten as they gathered on the
parapet and gazed with set faces at the thick columns of smoke which
rose along the sky-line.

King Monmouth stood among his chiefs, pale and haggard, with the
dishevelled, unkempt look of a man whose distress of mind has made him
forgetful of the care of his person. He held a pair of ivory glasses,
and as he raised them to his eyes his thin white hands shook and
twitched until it was grievous to watch him. Lord Grey handed his own
glasses to Saxon, who leaned his elbows upon the rough stone breastwork
and stared long and earnestly at the enemy.

'They are the very men I have myself led,' said Monmouth at last, in a
low voice, as though uttering his thoughts aloud. 'Over yonder at the
right I see Dumbarton's foot. I know these men well. They will fight.
Had we them with us all would be well.'

'Nay, your Majesty,' Lord Grey answered with spirit, 'you do your brave
followers an injustice. They, too, will fight to the last drop of their
blood in your quarrel.'

'Look down at them!' said Monmouth sadly, pointing at the swarming
streets beneath us. 'Braver hearts never beat in English breasts, yet do
but mark how they brabble and clamour like clowns on a Saturday night.
Compare them with the stern, orderly array of the trained battalions.
Alas! that I should have dragged these honest souls from their little
homes to fight so hopeless a battle!'

'Hark at that!' cried Wade. 'They do not think it hopeless, nor do we.'
As he spoke a wild shout rose from the dense crowd beneath, who were
listening to a preacher who was holding forth from a window.

'It is worthy Doctor Ferguson,' said Sir Stephen Timewell, who had
just come up. 'He is as one inspired, powerfully borne onwards in his
discourse. Verily he is even as one of the prophets of old. He has
chosen for his text, "The Lord God of gods he knoweth and Israel he
shall know. If it be in rebellion or if in transgression against the
Lord, save us not this day."'

'Amen, amen!' cried several of the Puritan soldiers devoutly, while
another hoarse burst of shouting from below, with the clashing of
scythe-blades and the clatter of arms, showed how deeply the people were
moved by the burning words of the fanatic.

'They do indeed seem to be hot for battle,' said Monmouth, with a more
sprightly look. 'It may be that one who has commanded regular troops, as
I have done, is prone to lay too much weight upon th