“Hurt, man? He must be killed.”
“Tchah! not he, sir. T’others would be too soft. Look, sir; don’t lose none of it. You may never have such a chance again. Yes; there, they’ve got the ladder up once more, and some’s holding it while the others goes up. Yes. Huzza! they’ll do it now. No. If they haven’t overturned it again.”
“Yes,” said Fred, sadly, and yet unable to help feeling pleased, so thoroughly were his sympathies on both sides. “They’re giving it up, Samson; they’re retiring.”
“No, sir; only carrying some of the hurt ones out of the fight. There goes another ladder up—two. Hah! look at that!”
Fred’s eyes were already riveted on the fresh scene, for, plainly seen even at that distance, the strong oaken-boarding screen nailed over the window at the end of the terrace on the ground floor was suddenly thrown down, and with a shout which was faintly heard on the hill, a party of about five and twenty Cavaliers rushed out, sword in hand, taking the attacking party in the flank with such vigour that they gave way, the two scaling-ladders were overturned, and for the moment the Puritans took to flight, and the attack seemed to have failed.
“Beaten, Samson,” said Fred, unable to crush down a feeling of satisfaction, even at the reverse of his own party.
“Beaten, sir? Not they. Only driven back. It’s just like the waves down by the cave, yonder; they come back again stronger than ever. Told you so, sir. Look at that.”
Samson Dee was right, for a solitary figure had suddenly stepped forward from the second rank, rallied the beaten men, and advanced with them slowly and steadily. There was a desperate mêlée, as the Cavaliers, reinforced by more from within, tried to complete their rout, and then, as it seemed to the excited watchers, the Royalists were driven back step by step, by sheer force of numbers. Then in the midst of a seething confusion, all swayed here and there along the terrace, and on and on, till the barricaded windows and porch were reached, and then, as they were checked by the stubborn walls as water is stopped by a pier, they struggled fighting ever sidewise, a stream of mingled men along the front of the house and over the broken-down boarding, till the tide of confusion set right through the open window into the Hall.
At first this human current was a mingling of both sides; then the Cavalier element seemed to disappear, and as Fred watched with starting eyes, he could see at last that it was a steady stream of their own men which flowed through the opening.
“They’re in, Master Fred! The day’s ours. Hark! Hear them firing inside? Look! Look!”