Part 9 (1/2)
”You have done well indeed, Master Furness,” Prince Rupert said warmly, ”and I would that many of my other officers showed the same circ.u.mspection and care as you have done. Now, Sir Ralph, let me hear what arrangements you made against surprise.”
”I set pickets in front of the village,” Sir Ralph said sulkily.
”And what besides?” the prince asked. ”Having done that, did you and your officers and men go quietly to sleep, as if the enemy were a hundred miles away?”
Sir Ralph was silent.
”Fie, for shame, sir!” the prince said sternly. ”Your own carelessness has brought disaster upon you, and instead of frankly owning your fault, and thanking Master Furness for having redeemed your error, saved the remnant of your troop, and defeated the Roundheads heavily, your jealousy and envy of the lad have wrought you to bring false accusations against him. Enough, sir,” he said peremptorily, seeing the glance of hatred which Sir Ralph cast toward Harry. ”Sufficient harm has been done already by your carelessness--see that no more arises from your bad temper. I forbid this quarrel to go further; until the king's enemies are wholly defeated there must be no quarrels between his friends. And should I hear of any further dispute on your part with Master Furness, I shall bring it before the king, and obtain his warrant for your dismissal from this army.”
The following day Harry and his troop moved further down the river, the enemy having fallen back from Didcot. He was placed at a village where there was a ford across the river. The post was of importance, as its position prevented the enemy from making raids into the country, where stores of provisions and cattle had been collected for the use of the army at Oxford. Harry's force was a small one for the defense of such a post; but there appeared little danger of an attack, as Prince Rupert, with a large force of cavalry, lay but a mile or two distant. A few days after their arrival, however, Prince Rupert started with his horse to drive back a party of the enemy whom he heard were lying some miles north of Reading.
”Prince Rupert never seems to have room for two ideas in his head at the same time,” Jacob said. ”The moment he hears of an enemy off he rides at full gallop, forgetting that he has left us alone here. It is well if the Roundheads at Reading do not sally out and attack us, seeing how useful this ford would be to them.”
”I agree with you, Jacob, and we will forthwith set to work to render the place as defensible as we may.”
”We had best defend the other side of the ford, if they advance,” Jacob said. ”We could make a far better stand there.”
”That is true, Jacob; but though we could there bar them from entering our country, they, if they obtained the village, would shut the door to our entering theirs. No, it is clear that it our duty to defend the village as long as we can, if we should be attacked.”
Harry now set his men to work to make loopholes in the cottages and inclosure walls, and to connect the latter by banks of earth, having thorn branches set on the top. Just at the ford itself stood a large water-mill, worked by a stream which here ran into the river. Harry placed sacks before all the windows, leaving only loopholes through which to fire. Some of the troop carried pistols only; others had carbines; and some, short, wide-mouthed guns, which carried large charges of buckshot. Pickets were sent forward a mile toward Reading.
Early in the afternoon these galloped in with the news that a heavy column of infantry and cavalry, with two pieces of artillery, were approaching along the road. Harry at once dispatched a messenger, with orders to ride until he found Prince Rupert, to tell him of the state he was in, and ask him to hurry to his a.s.sistance, giving a.s.surance that he would hold the village as long as possible. All now labored vigorously at the works of defense. Half an hour after the alarm had been given the enemy were seen approaching.
”There must be over five hundred men, horse and foot,” Jacob said, as from the upper story of the mill he watched with Harry the approach of the enemy. ”With fifty men we shall never be able to defend the circuit of the village.”
”Not if they attack all round at once,” Harry agreed. ”But probably they will fall upon us in column, and behind stone walls we can do much.
We must keep them out as long as we can; then fall back here, and surround ourselves with a ring of fire.”
As soon as it was known that the enemy were approaching Harry had given orders that all the inhabitants should evacuate their houses and cross the river, taking with them such valuables as they could carry. There were several horses and carts in the village, and these were at once put in requisition, and the people crossing and recrossing the river rapidly carried most of their linen and other valuables over in safety, the men continuing to labor for the preservation of their goods, even after the fight commenced.
The Roundheads halted about four hundred yards from the village. Just as they did so there was a trampling of horses, and Sir Ralph Willoughby, with his troop, now reduced to thirty strong, rode into the village. He drew up his horse before Harry.
”Master Furness,” he said, ”Prince Rupert has forbidden me to test your courage in the way gentlemen usually do so. But there is now a means open. Let us see which will ride furthest--you or I--into the ranks of yonder hors.e.m.e.n.”
Harry hesitated a moment; then he said gravely:
”My life is not my own to throw away, Sir Ralph. My orders are to hold this place. That I can best do on foot, for even if our troops united were to rout the enemy's cavalry, their footmen would still remain, and would carry the village. No, sir, my duty is to fight here.”
”I always thought you a coward!” Sir Ralph exclaimed; ”now I know it,”
and, with a taunting laugh, he ordered his men to follow him, issued from the village, and prepared, with his little band, to charge the Roundhead horse, about a hundred and fifty strong.
Just as they formed line, however, the enemy's' guns opened, and a shot struck Sir Ralph full in the chest, hurling him, a shattered corpse, to the ground.
His men, dismayed at the fall of their leader, drew rein.
”Fall back, men,” Harry shouted from behind, ”fall back, and make a stand here. You must be cut to pieces if you advance.”
The troop, who had no other officer with them, at once obeyed Harry's orders. They had heard the conversation between him and their leader, and although prepared to follow Sir Ralph, who was the landlord of most of them, they saw that Harry was right, and that to attack so numerous a body of horse and foot was but to invite destruction.
CHAPTER IX.
A STUBBORN DEFENSE.