"Hist!" whispered Evelyn; "I surely heard some one move in those bushes."
They drew up hastily side by side, and first looked to their arms, then with a close scrutiny towards the adjacent copse. It was but an instant's pause; for the branches were dashed aside, and the moonbeams shone on the glittering hauberks of the Parliamentary troops.
"Surrender!" cried the dull harsh tones of the corporal, their leader.
"We must fight for it!" exclaimed Evelyn; and clapping spurs to his horse, and drawing his sword, he made a desperate effort to pass the soldiers. It was in vain: the report of fire-arms startled the horse, who reared and fell backwards, bearing his unfortunate rider to the earth, who was at once surrounded and made prisoner; but with no bodily injury, beyond the shock of the fall. Goring, like himself, had sprang forwards, first snatching a pistol from his holsters, and discharging it at him who seemed to be the chief of the party,—the man reeled and fell; but his fall was instantly avenged. The young Royalist had broken the circle, and gained the road beyond—the soldiers fired—he leapt up in the saddle, and then dropped forward on the neck of the fright-
