And then I thought the whole world did heave and turn and swim before my eyes, and all that I saw through the mist of its convulsion was two long, shadowy arms reaching from opposite quarters for Roan Charley's bridle; all I thought, that little was the need to hold a horse that had turned to stone; all I heard, the sound of a voice far off, that said: "The Prince of Orange; there is a plot; look to his safety; search the house, the grounds, or they will slay him." And then slowly the earth settled again to its place, the mist began to clear, and I knew the voice for my own. And I saw, as one that wakes from a dream, that he who held my bridle on the near side was Captain Edward Royston, and straightway I was within a little of so addressing him, but bethought me in time, and, looking round, asked where was the master of the house.
Upon which he replied: "I am Captain Royston; what is to do?"
"Sir," I said, very solemnly (yet, for all the gravity of the case, I was at pains to keep back a smile when I so addressed him, and saw that he knew me not), "Sir, His Highness is in danger. Madam your mother has been by force taken from home, but is now in safety; the servants that you find in your house are evil men, and of the plot."
Then he that held my horse on the off side, whom I afterwards knew for that great person that for discretion I shall still call "Captain Jennings," took his hand from the bridle.
"The lad speaks truth," he said; "a word with you, Captain." With that he drew Ned aside, and while they spoke together ("Captain Jennings" telling, I think, how he feared unjust suspicion of his own connivance if aught befell His Highness) I marked that six Swedish troopers did approach, threading their way through the trees from the gate in the lane that I have above mentioned. Also, between them and me, but nearer by no little distance to where I still sat upon Charley's back, I saw a man stand leaning against the wall of the granary that stands in the orchard, and thus hidden from the advancing soldiers that were still, as I supposed, in pursuit of poor me. And this man, whether from description or from something high and noble in the aquiline countenance of him, I knew at once for William, Prince of Orange. Now, even as I gazed in idleness of wonder on the man I held greatest in the world (for did not Edward Royston serve him with reverence and ardor?), I saw that a little door in the granary, on His Highness's left, was slowly, slowly moving back upon its hinges, and a moment later I had one glimpse of a fat face and a red head peering from the narrow slit of that opening. I thought of Farmer Kidd's tale, and again of Madam Royston's, and straightway drew my sword and clapped heels to my horse. Roan Charley, for all his fatigue, responded very gallantly, and in three of his long bounds we had been beside the Prince, but for a fellow, long, lean, and black-coated, that drew a pistol from under his breast, which he fired in my face in the same moment as he leapt at Charley's head, whereby he undid himself, for, as the horse reared in terror, I, in as much, struck spurs in his sides, and Charley leaping forward, we rode clean over our assailant, whom I struck at wildly with my sword as he fell. Charley must have found foothold upon some part of his body, for I remember still with a thrill of sickness the softness under foot.
Hereafter my recollection of the mêlée that ensued has little clearness; all was noise and confusion, the band of conspirators having burst out from their hiding in the granary in desperate effort to achieve their wicked end even in that eleventh hour and very moment of discovery. And even then they might have found success but for Roan Charley and his rider, which is to me ever a joy to remember; for, though I recall little and confusedly what befell around me, I know that after the fall beneath Charley's hoofs of that rascal (the same that Ned had supposed a very civil servant of his mother), we reached at once the door in the wall of the granary; but not in time to prevent the sortie of three men with sword and pistol in hand (the rest, I believe, came forth by a door on the other side). With two of these His Highness was very speedily and coolly engaged, while the third was aiming a clean downward cut at his head with a great sword whose gleam seems yet burned in upon my eyes as I write and remember. And then, in some manner, Charley and I were upon him, and my blade received the stroke meant for His Highness's unprotected head. And after that I thought something did break (as indeed it did, being the blade of my brother Rupert's sword). I heard the shouts and the running feet of friends closing round, and then all was darkness and nothing.
The next I knew was a burning in mouth and throat, and awoke to find myself swallowing some liquid, very foul and ill-savored, held to my lips by a gentleman I did not know. I afterwards learned the liquor was Dutch, and called schnapps, the man none other than the great Count Schomberg, late Marshal of France, and once high in favor of His Majesty King Lewis; but now chief in command under His Highness of Orange, having abandoned the highest of military honors and the favor of the greatest King upon earth for the cause of religion.
So, opening my eyes and looking round, when I had done with coughing over that vile liquor, I saw not only that a numerous company stood around, but also that here and there upon the grass among the trees lay several men, in strange and twisted attitudes such as I had never before seen; and something told me that these were dead; and I knew that I was upon a little field of battle, and straightway was like again to have swooned, when one behind me said in the French language and kindly tones, but in manner of speech more guttural than men of that nation do mostly use: "Poor lad! 'T is like enough this is his first sight of blood."
Which words, calling to my mind how I was habited, and the whole memory therewith of the part I played, did somehow stiffen my courage and arouse my spirit, so that I said, with what of hardihood I could bring into the words: "Indeed, I ask your pardon, gentlemen all. 'T was the fatigue, I do suppose, of riding fifteen miles at such a pace, and to the back of that my great fear for the life and welfare of His Highness of Orange. I pray you, tell me," I continued, looking round among the company, "whether His Highness be unhurt?"
And then one came from behind me, and spoke to me in that same voice that had but now pitied me in the French idiom for my first sight of blood-shedding. And when I saw him I knew him for the great Prince I had ridden to defend. This time, however, he spoke in English, using that language certainly with little ease and frequent errors, which yet I shall make no essay to reproduce in this my narrative, lest I should thereby bring something of ridicule into an address ever princely and dignified, and, on this occasion at least, full of grace and courtesy. Much, I know, has been said and written of the harshness of his manner, the bitterness of his tongue, and even of a certain Dutch boorishness in behavior, of all which I saw nothing at our first meeting.