No Quarter!

In Parliamentary war times English roads were very different from what they are of to-day. Those of the shires bordering Wales were no better than bridle paths, generally follow...

Instead of viewing the rural scenery, the two colonels had come there to make a reconnaissance. The town itself, its fortified _enceinte_, the gates piercing it, and the roads a...

Mitcheldean lies at the foot of the steep _facade_ already spoken of as forming a periphery to the elevated Forest district. The slope ascends direct from the western skirts of...

An hundred horsemen riding at their hardest--not in any military formation, but strung out in a straggled ruck--horsemen steel-clad from crown to hip, some with helmets battered...

"What a life we've been leading, Sab! Shut up in cities as birds in a cage! Now nearly two years of it, with scarce ever a peep at the dear, delightful country. Oh! it's a wretc...

"The swift Rhone cleaves his way between Heights which appear as lovers who have parted In hate, whose mining depths so intervene That they can meet no more, though broken-heart...

"Ha-ha-ha! That do I; and Sir John himself. A true Cavalier, and no better company over the cup. But come, gentlemen! Let us act up to the spirit of the song. Fill goblets, and...

No more on that night came the cousins together. If by chance they met, it was to pass one another as strangers unacquainted, exchanging neither speech nor look. Further attempt...

The girls had got home, hard breathing, panting, from the haste they had made. But though supper was announced as set, they did not think of sitting down to it, but instead, ent...

The river Avon bisecting the city of Bristol was spanned by a bridge; one of those quaint structures of the olden time, with a narrow causeway, high _tete-de-pont_, and houses a...

Still but half-way across the inundated tract, and up to their saddle-girths in water, Rupert and his escort were floundering on. As already said, they marched "by twos"--this n...

Steaming at the nostrils Saladin was for the second time brought to a stand, head to head with old stable comrades that snorted recognition. For with Colonel Walwyn was Rob Wild...

The man and woman left behind, as they stood _vis-a-vis_, presented a striking appearance. Such a pair in juxtaposition were a sight not often given to the eye. He some inches t...

At sight of the glistening gems a sudden change had come over the features of the trooper, their expression of surliness being displaced by that of intense cupidity. But for thi...

If Waller's passage through Bristol caused general rejoicing, there was joy in a certain private circle at the re-entry of Sir Richard Walwyn with his troop. Three of the inmate...

The officers had separated into two groups, one on each side the Governor, as the odd trinity of personages was presented to him; these, as they came up, falling into line--Rob...

"Scarcely either. I heard Richard say Sir Henry's men carry lances. These have none. More probably they're from Monmouth, or rather Raglan. The old Marquis of Worcester's greatl...

Words cannot depict the feelings of Sir Richard Walwyn and Eustace Trevor as they reined up by the burning house. With both it was anguish of the keenest; for they knew who were...

It was Colonel Robert Kyrle who made the odd observation; he to whom it was addressed being Colonel Sir Richard Walwyn. The time was between midnight and morning, some two hours...

"I'm sure of it," affirmed Vaga, in confident tone as before. "If I couldn't tell him, I can the horse--the light grey he always rides. And that's his dress--the colour at least...

There was rejoicing at Ruardean. After two years of forced absence, the master of Hollymead had returned to his ancestral home, and the faces of his beautiful daughters once mor...

Notwithstanding Lunsford's assurances--at best rather dubious--the river could not be crossed at Westbury, without much difficulty and delay. The large horse-boat had received s...

High Meadow House, where Massey's troops were quartered, was but a step from the Buckstone. A first-class mansion it was, belonging to a gentleman, by name Benedict Hall, and in...

The sun had set as Reginald Trevor rode out of Hollymead Park. But he did not intend returning to Lydney that night; instead, purposed passing it in Ross, to which town he had a...

An interval of some weeks after the scenes described, and the war, long imminent, was on. All over England men had declared cause and taken sides; the battle of Edgehill had bee...

It would be difficult to imagine a more enchanting spot for a dwelling-place than that where stood Hollymead House. Near the north-western angle of the Forest of Dean, it comman...

A very saturnalia of riot and rapine followed the capture of Bristol. For the conditions of surrender were broken before the ink recording them was dry, and the soldiers fell to...

The moon had risen, but only to be seen at intervals. Heavy cumuli drifting sluggishly athwart the sky, now and then drew curtain-like over her disk, making the earth dark as Er...

After the cadgeress had gone out of the room the anxiety of the sisters was, for a while, of the keenest. The first flush of excitement over, they saw danger in what they had do...

On the highest point of the Forest of Dean district--just one thousand feet above ocean's level--is a singular mass of rock known as the "Buckstone." An inverted pyramid, with b...

Unlike in other respects, the sisters were unequal in height--the elder being the taller. With some difference in their dress, too, though both wore the ordinary outdoor costume...

The speaker was a man of military mien, cavalry arm, as could be told by his seat in the saddle--for he was on horseback. Not in military uniform, however, but dressed in a plai...

Wide the breach now between Vaga Powell and Eustace Trevor, growing wider as the moments passed. Though the evolutions of the dance often brought them near one another, no more...

Away went they, jesses trailing, and bells tinkling, in buoyant upward flight. For the heron that had risen out of the sedge, intending retreat to its heronry, at sight of the e...

Though clear and placid had been the sky when the two colonels stood by the Buckstone, in a few hours after it was all clouded. Night had descended, but in addition to its natur...

Getting within sight of the city's gate, the cadgers could see it was shut, drawbridge up, and portcullis down. Bristol was then a walled town, with an _enceinte_ of ancient for...

The man who had succeeded Colonel Essex in the governorship of Bristol was well, even enthusiastically, affected to the Parliamentary cause. Beyond that, he was altogether unfit...

Sabrina had approved of it for another reason thus hinted at. After the taking of Monmouth by the Parliamentarians, Sir Richard Walwyn had orders to keep to the Hereford side of...

In his defiant refusal the Master of Hollymead, as already said, had received encouragement by a word spoken from the withdrawing-room. It was after the ladies had passed out of...

Some truth was there in the report that had reached Rob Wilde, of the King being chased out of London. Though not literally chased, after his display in the House of Commons, lu...

Straight on to the soldiers rode Sir Richard Eustace Trevor by his side, their mounted servants behind; the men afoot following close after in a surging mass. These, soon as wel...

The girls had gone upstairs, their maid, Gwenthian, attending upon them to dress for dinner, of which something had been said to the Prince when parting with him at the door.

While Colonel Lunsford and Captain Trevor were waiting for the haw-haw gate to be opened, they had seen the figures of two ladies outlined in the withdrawing-room windows--one i...

It was a _contredanse_; the "contradanza" of Spain transmitted through France to England, where it had become naturalised, and by a misapprehension of terms called "country danc...

The young Cavalier was now altogether at the mercy of his older, and as proved, abler antagonist; knew the latter could take his life, and had the right, as well as good reason,...

Waller's stay in Bristol was of the shortest, only long enough to rest his wearied men and their jaded horses. The "Night Owl" was not the bird to relish being engaged in a bele...

In all England's territory there is no district more interesting than the Forest of Dean. Historically it figures in our earliest annals, as borderland and bulwark of the ancien...

Following with alacrity, Sabrina was soon again by the side of her sister. But just then no further speech passed between them. Not that both were silent. On the crest of the ri...

They were not upon any of the Forest roads, but quite on the other side of the Severn, trudging along towards Bristol, the big city whose spires Jack had caught sight of.

"True o' that. But consider how fur's been the day. Seven mile to Monnerth--a good full load goin'--an' same back, whens we be home. An't han't had thing to eat, 'cept the picki...

Ladies they were, as grace, garb, and other surroundings proclaimed them. On horseback, an elderly gentleman along with them, riding in front; and behind a small retinue of serv...

Madame Lalande, _nee_ Powell, was the widow of a West Indian planter, late deceased. Her husband, during life, had held commercial intercourse with Bristol, then chief port of c...

The conspiracy having been nipped in the bud, and the conspirators in prison, Bristol again breathed freely. The approaches to it were once more open, the thwarted Royalists hav...

Night had descended over Hollymead. A dark night, too, though there was no lack of light inside the house or around it. Nearing November the atmosphere had a frosty feel, and gr...

"Laws, Jack! fear us be takin' back bad news to Sir Richard. An worse for the poor young lady at Glo'ster. Rob's tolt me her wor well-nigh deestract when her heerd he wor took p...

Reginald Trevor it was, for Vaga was not guessing. Something she saw about the horseman, or his horse, had enabled her to identify him; as she did so, that third and latest chan...

On return for Hollymead, the hawking party did not pass through Ruardean, as it would have been round about. Nevertheless, Sir Richard went that way. At a forking of the forest...

"Turn and turn, sister," said Sabrina, as she rode up. "You've had sport enough with your great eagles. Suppose we go up to the hill, and give my dear little Mer a cast-off?"

About an hour after the capture of Kyrle's party, a body of horse, numbering over one hundred, might have been seen descending the Kymin towards Monmouth. The fury of the storm...

Soldiers they were, in scarlet doublets, elaborately laced; their standard flag, with the Royal arms in its field, and a crown upon the peak of its staff, proclaiming them in th...

Of the Foresters who figure in our tale, Rob Wilde, Jerky Jack, and Winny were not the only ones who had found their way into Bristol. Most of Sir Richard Walwyn's troopers were...

The people who had followed the soldiers were still outside the haw-haw; a file of troopers having been stationed by its gate to prevent their passing through. They could easily...

As the sergeant conjectured, Colonel Walwyn was in his quarters; Eustace Trevor, his almost constant companion, along with him. The ever-active Governor of Gloucester was absent...

The Severn was in flood, its wide valley a sheet of water, which extended miles from either bank, and far up north towards Worcester. Viewed from an eminence, it looked as if th...

"I'm quite sure of it. Though I haven't evidence of her heart's inclinings in speech plain as that we've just--Hish! Another couple coming this way! Really, Richard, we ought no...

"Trevor!" cried the colonel to his troop captain, now also upon his feet, and sharing his excitement; "send out an orderly to summon Harley and our other officers. Perhaps you h...

The peregrines had killed cushat and partridge, the merlin its half-score of buntings and turtle-doves, and the ladies having had a surfeit of sport, were about setting faces ho...

Still self-invited, Rupert accompanied the ladies to the house, and assisted them to dismount with great show of courtesy and respect. The little ruffle with Vaga had determined...