The Cornet of Horse | Page 7

saw, as he expected, a carriage standing by
the road. One or two figures lay stretched on the ground; the driver lay
back, a huddled mass, on his seat; a man held high a torch with one
hand, while with the other he was striving to recharge a pistol. Four
other men with swords were attacking a gentleman who, with his back
to the coach, was defending himself calmly and valiantly.
As he rode up Rupert unbuttoned his riding cloak, and threw it off as he
reined up his horse and dismounted. An execration broke from the
assailants at seeing this new arrival, but perceiving that he was alone,
one of the four men advanced to attack him.
Just as Rupert leapt from his horse, the man holding the torch
completed the loading of his pistol, and levelling it at him, fired. The
ball knocked off his hat just as he touched the ground, and the man
shouted:
"Kill him, Gervais. Spit him like a lark; he is only a boy."

Rupert drew his sword as the highwayman advanced upon him, and
was in a moment hotly engaged. Never before had he fenced with
pointed rapiers; but the swords had scarcely crossed when he felt, with
the instinct of a good fencer, how different were the clumsy thrusts of
his opponent to the delicate and skillful play of his grandfather and
Monsieur Dessin. There was no time to lose in feints and flourishes; the
man with the torch had drawn his sword, and was coming up; and
Rupert parried a thrust of his assailant's, and with a rapid lunge in tierce
ran him right through the body. Then with a bound he dashed through
the men attacking the traveller, and took his stand beside him, while the
torchbearer, leaving his torch against a stump of a tree, also joined the
combat.
Beyond a calm "I thank you, sir; your arrival is most opportune," from
the traveller, not a word passed as the swords clashed and ground
against each other.
"Dash in, and finish him," shouted the man who appeared the leader of
the assailants, and three of them rushed together at the traveller. The
leader fell back cursing, with a sword thrust through his shoulder, just
at the moment when Rupert sent the sword of the man who was
attacking him flying through the air, and turning at once, engaged one
of the two remaining assailants of the traveller. But these had had
enough of it; and as the lackeys came running up, they turned, and
rushed away into the darkness. The lackeys at Rupert's order
discharged their pistols after them; but a moment later the sound of four
horses making off at full gallop, showed that they had escaped.
"By my faith," the traveller said, turning to Rupert, and holding out his
hand, "no knight errant ever arrived more opportunely. You are a
gallant gentleman, sir; permit me to ask to whom I am so indebted?"
"My name is Rupert Holliday, sir," the lad said, as the stranger shook
his hand warmly, and who, as the lackey approached with the torch,
exclaimed:
"Why, by the king's head, you are but a stripling, and you have run one
of these fellows through the body, and disarmed the other, as neatly as I

ever saw it done in the schools. Why, young sir, if you go on like this
you will be a very Paladin."
"I have had good masters, sir," Rupert said, modestly; "and having been
taught to use my sword, there is little merit in trouncing such rascals as
these."
"By my faith, but there is though," the stranger said. "It is one thing to
fence in a school with buttoned foils, another to bear oneself as calmly
and as well as you did. But here are your friends, or I mistake not."
The coach came lumbering up, at a speed which for coaches in those
days was wonderful, and as it stopped Colonel Holliday leapt out,
sword in hand.
"Is it all over?" he exclaimed. "Is Rupert hurt?"
"It is all over, sir; and I have not so much as a scratch," Rupert said.
"Sir," the stranger said, uncovering, and making a courtly bow to the
old cavalier, and to Mistress Dorothy, who was looking from the open
door, "your son--"
"My grandson," the colonel, who had also uncovered, corrected.
"Your grandson arrived in time to save me from grievous peril. My
coachman and lackey were shot at the first fire, and I fancy one of the
horses. I disposed of one of the rascals, but four others pressed me hard,
while a fifth held a light to them. Your grandson ran one through in fair
fight, and disarmed another; I disabled a third, and they ran. I have to