The White Horses

I.--WHO RIDES FOR THE KING? II.--SKIPTON-IN-CRAVEN III.--SOME MEN OF FAIRFAX'S IV.--THE LAST LAUGH V.--THE LADY OF RIPLEY VI.--HOW MICHAEL CAME TO YORK VII.--A HALT AT KNARESBOR...

"So you want us to ride through Lambert's men and into the castle to help garrison it?" asked Squire Metcalf, with his big simplicity, his assurance that the men he led would ch...

"No, they were going at a sharp marching pace. They were a likely set o' lads to look at--thick in the beam, but varry dour of face. I take no sides myself in this business of K...

"He was tied by ropes, and I think he was in pain, his face was so grey and drawn. It did not seem to matter. He had all his folk at call, and would not summon them, except for...

When he had gone, Joan came to her aunt's side. "He--he does not care, and I would we were home in Yoredale, he and I. I was free to flout him there."

"As you will," growled Richard. "He'll be out of the worst o' harm, at any rate. Ladies' eyes are pretty enough in times of peace, but they don't match with war."

They had not gone seven miles before they heard, wide on their bridle-hand, the braying of a donkey. It was not a casual braying, but a persistent, wild appeal that would not be...

"Oh, a trifle of ale-drinking! My heart was warm, you understand, and I roved down Banbury street with some song of glory coming for King Charles. I'm not warm now, but the cool...

"It is all we do in these dull times, Rupert--to win aces from each other. We're tied here by the heels. There's the width of England to go fighting in, and they will not let us."

As they talked, and while Metcalf was pushing tobacco--borrowed, like the snuff, from Blake--into the bowl of a clay pipe, there came a little sound from up the road. It was a r...

There's no stimulus so fine as a dream nurtured in good soil. Blake went foraging by day, taking his share of other camp work, too; and, when his sleep was earned o' nights, he...

Beyond the hillock a besieging army of three thousand men slept in security, save for the hundred who kept guard about the mortar. These five-score men were wakeful; for Colonel...

"By your leave," said Kit, "the siege is raised. Rigby has gone to Bolton-le-Moors, to hide there. He has what are left of his three thousand men, and fifteen hundred others. Th...

And Kit, the young fire in his veins, did not know that Michael was jesting at the grave of his own hopes. That upper chamber--the look of Mistress Joan, her pride and slenderne...

A droll Irishman of the company broke into a roar of laughter. The sentry's face was so woebegone, his statement of fact so pithy, that even Newcastle smiled grimly. "Soften the...

The Squire of Nappa explained that those under Newcastle's command had suffered during the late siege--men and horses were so weak from illness that no zeal in the world could b...

"Oh, may be old--but not so much of a fool, maybe. He's in yonder, closeted wi' Lady Ingilby in the parlour. I kenned him at first sight by the lap of his ugly jaw. Come hithert...

"Well, I need you, as it happens. There are many of your dead in Wilstrop Wood, and General Leslie has a soft heart--after the fight is done--like most Scotsmen. He sends me to...

"It was this way. My uncle would have me near him at Marston. We were with Rupert on the right wing, and were close behind one of the Riding Metcalfs--I know not which, for they...

It was then, for the first time, that knowledge came to her, as if a veil were lifted. She saw the years behind. Vanity, pride of conquest, zest in the hunting for hunting's sak...

The Squire's wife watched it brewing, this new menace to all that was left of her happiness. She knew, that it was idle to resist or to persuade. She had bred men-sons for the K...