The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-08-04
CHAPTER XXI.
stratagem.

However graceful the Frenchman might
be on foot, and no one denied his elegance
Of bearing, he was but an amateur on
horseback, and when his steed unexpected
ly plunged forward he relinquished the
reins and grasped the name. For one
brief moment the attention Of the troop
was diverted toward the unexplained an
tics Of the maddened horse and the immin-
ent overthrow Of its rider. It is one of the
defects of human nature that man is prone
to laugh when he sees a fellow creature
In some preuicament from which his own
superior skill leaves him free. Every
man in the company was a faultless rider.
and nothing their horses could do would
have been any embarrassment to them.
To this dandified foreigner, whom at heart
they desp1sed IN any case, crouching like
gaudily dressed monkey on a frolicsome
dog, and screaming for help, was too much
for even the saddest Of them, and roar
Of laughter went up, which did nothing
toward quieting the injured and frightened
quadruped. If it had been the horse Of
Armstrong that had begun these dancings,
his guards would have been instantly on
the alert for an attempted escape, but at
the very moment their eyes should have
been on the Scot their attention was with
drawn Armstrong did not laugh, but,
thrusting back his knife, whipped out his
sword and struck De Courcys horse twice
with the broad of it. His own steel leaped
forward under the prick of the spur and
before the colonel could give the word of
command the two had disappeared in the
fog ahead Even then the colonel, who
was the only man that had his wits about
him, did not think there was the least
chance of escape, for he had heard the
troop coming toward him, and Armstrong
must run directly into it. He rose in his
stirrups to give the alarm to those ahead
when all heard ringing shout: Charge
cavaliers! God save the king! To hell with
the roundheads! Charge!''
Out Of the fog came a scattering fire
then a volley. Two horses and three men
went down, while the other troopers has
tiy unslung their carabines and fired down
the street without waiting for the word OF
command.
"Stop, you FOOLS yelled the colonel
'you are shooting your own men," Then
to the oncomers he roared a like warming
| which was drowned in another volley. The
| Lichfield men were not to be taken in
even if they had heard the warning. With
their own eyes they had seen two cavaliers
| burst upon them out of the fog with {
, strident cry for the king. De Courcy com
| ing first, they concentrated upon him. anC
he went down before them. Armstrong
swinging his sword, shifting right and left
believing like a fend in true cavalier
style, a very Prince Rupert come again
dashed at the weakest spot, and his i'm
petuosity carried all before him.
Never mind him. cried the leader, a!
some would have pursued
| Fire and break their charge" and fir
they did right stoutly, until maddene,
officer with bravery that scorned tn
bullets around him, galloped along thei
from, wa ing his sword and commandin,
| them to stop. A
you are killing your own men. Their
are no royalists, but an interfering fool o
a Frenchman and an escaped Scot. Bac]
to Lichfleld." Nevertheless a battle
not u.elled at word, and the BRAY