Friends, though divided | Page 8

him
one, two, or more men, in proportion to the size of his holding. I shall
myself bear the expense of the arms and outfit of all these; but we must
not strip the land of hands. Farming must still go on, for people must

feed, even if there be war. As to the rents, we must waive our
agreements while the war lasts. Each man will pay me what proportion
of his rent he is able, and no more. The king will need money as well as
men, and as all I receive will be at his service, I know that each of you
will pay as much as he can to aid the common cause. I have here a list
of your names. My son will take it round to each, and will write down
how many men each of you may think to bring with him to the war. No
man must be taken unwillingly. I want only those whose hearts are in
the cause. My son is grieving that he is not old enough to ride with us;
but should aught befall me in the strife, I have bade him ride and take
his place among you."
Another cheer arose, and Harry went round the table taking down the
names and numbers of the men, and when his total was added up, it
was found that those present believed that they could bring a hundred
men with them into the field.
"This is beyond my hopes," Sir Harry said, as amid great cheering he
announced the result. "I myself will raise another fifty from my grooms,
gardeners, and keepers, and from brave lads I can gather in the village,
and I shall be proud indeed when I present to his majesty two hundred
men of Furness, ready to die in his defense."
After this there was great arrangement of details. Each tenant gave a list
of the arms which he possessed and the number of horses fit for work,
and as in those days, by the law of the land each man, of whatsoever his
degree, was bound to keep arms in order to join the militia, should his
services be required for the defense of the kingdom, the stock of arms
was, with the contents of Sir Henry's armory, found to be sufficient for
the number of men who were to be raised. It was eight o'clock in the
evening before all was arranged, and the party broke up and separated
to their homes.
For the next week there was bustle and preparation on the Furness
estates, as, indeed, through all England. As yet, however, the
Parliament were gathering men far more rapidly than the king. The
Royalists of England were slow to perceive how far the Commons
intended to press their demands, and could scarcely believe that civil

war was really to break out. The friends of the Commons, however,
were everywhere in earnest. The preachers in the conventicles
throughout the land denounced the king in terms of the greatest
violence, and in almost every town the citizens were arming and
drilling. Lord Essex, who commanded the Parliamentary forces, was
drawing toward Northampton with ten thousand men, consisting
mainly of the train-bands of London; while the king, with only a few
hundred followers, was approaching Nottingham, where he proposed to
unfurl his standard and appeal to his subjects.
In a week from the day of the appeal of Sir Henry two troops, each of a
hundred men strong, drew up in front of Furness Hall. To the eye of a
soldier accustomed to the armies of the Continent, with their bands
trained by long and constant warfare, the aspect of this troop might not
have appeared formidable. Each man was dressed according to his
fancy. Almost all wore jack-boots coming nigh to the hip, iron breast
and back pieces, and steel caps. Sir Henry Furness and four gentlemen,
his friends, who had seen service in the Low Countries, and had now
gladly joined his band, took their places, Sir Henry himself at the head
of the body, and two officers with each troop. They, too, were clad in
high boots, with steel breast and back pieces, thick buff leather gloves,
and the wide felt hats with feathers which were worn in peace time.
During the war some of the Royalist officers wore iron caps as did their
foes. But the majority, in a spirit of defiance and contempt of their
enemies, wore the wide hat of the times, which, picturesque and
graceful as it was, afforded but a poor defense for the head. Almost all
wore their hair long and in ringlets, and across their shoulders were the
white scarfs typical of their loyalty to the king. Harry bestrode a fine
horse which his father had