his foes were on him, and he was once more charging and fleeing,

leaping, stabbing, dropping to his knee, and using indifferently

sword and dagger, foot and hand, with the same unshaken courage and

feverish energy and speed.

But that ear-piercing summons had been heard at last. There was a

muffled rushing in the snow; and in a good hour for Dick, who saw

the sword-points glitter already at his throat, there poured forth

out of the wood upon both sides a disorderly torrent of mounted

men-at-arms, each cased in iron, and with visor lowered, each

bearing his lance in rest, or his sword bared and raised, and each

carrying, so to speak, a passenger, in the shape of an archer or

page, who leaped one after another from their perches, and had

presently doubled the array.

The original assailants; seeing themselves outnumbered and

surrounded, threw down their arms without a word.

"Seize me these fellows!" said the hero of the trumpet; and when

his order had been obeyed, he drew near to Dick and looked him in

the face.

Dick, returning this scrutiny, was surprised to find in one who had

displayed such strength, skill and energy, a lad no older than

himself--slightly deformed, with one shoulder higher than the

other, and of a pale, painful, and distorted countenance. {2} The

eyes, however, were very clear and bold.

"Sir," said this lad, "ye came in good time for me, and none too

early."

"My lord," returned Dick, with a faint sense that he was in the

presence of a great personage, "ye are yourself so marvellous a

good swordsman that I believe ye had managed them single-handed.

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