CHAPTER II--THE BATTLE OF SHOREBY

The whole distance to be crossed was not above a quarter of a mile. But

they had no sooner debauched beyond the cover of the trees than they were

aware of people fleeing and screaming in the snowy meadows upon either

hand. Almost at the same moment a great rumour began to arise, and

spread and grow continually louder in the town; and they were not yet

halfway to the nearest house before the bells began to ring backward from

the steeple.

The young duke ground his teeth together. By these so early signals of

alarm he feared to find his enemies prepared; and if he failed to gain a

footing in the town, he knew that his small party would soon be broken

and exterminated in the open.

In the town, however, the Lancastrians were far from being in so good a

posture. It was as Dick had said. The night-guard had already doffed

their harness; the rest were still hanging--unlatched, unbraced, all

unprepared for battle--about their quarters; and in the whole of Shoreby

there were not, perhaps, fifty men full armed, or fifty chargers ready to

be mounted.

The beating of the bells, the terrifying summons of men who ran about the

streets crying and beating upon the doors, aroused in an incredibly short

space at least two score out of that half hundred. These got speedily to

The Black Arrow