With Marlborough to Malplaquet

With Marlborough to
Malplaquet

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Herbert Strang and Richard Stead
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Title: With Marlborough to Malplaquet
Author: Herbert Strang and Richard Stead
Release Date: October 20, 2004 [eBook #13817]
Language: English
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Herbert Strang's Historical Series
WITH MARLBOROUGH TO MALPLAQUET
A Story of the Reign of Queen Anne
by
HERBERT STRANG
and

RICHARD STEAD Fellow of the Royal Historical Society
With Four Illustrations in Colour and a Map
LONDON
1908

NOW READY IN THIS SERIES.
WITH THE BLACK PRINCE: a Story of the Reign of Edward III. By
HERBERT STRANG and RICHARD STEAD.
A MARINER OF ENGLAND: a Story of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth.
By the same authors.
WITH MARLBOROUGH TO MALPLAQUET: a Story of the Reign
of Queen Anne. By the same authors.
Other volumes to follow.

[Illustration: A mounted officer came galloping up. See

Chapter X
.]

With Marlborough to Malplaquet

NOTE
The object of this series is to encourage a taste for history among boys
and girls up to thirteen or fourteen years of age. An attempt has been
made to bring home to the young reader the principal events and
movements of the periods covered by the several volumes.
If in these little stories historical fact treads somewhat closely upon the
heels of fiction, the authors would plead the excellence of their
intentions and the limitations of their space.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I
A BOUT AT SINGLESTICK

CHAPTER II
THE ATTACK ON THE COLLIERY

CHAPTER III
THE FIRE AT BINFIELD TOWERS

CHAPTER IV
THE RESCUE

CHAPTER V
GEORGE RECONNOITRES

CHAPTER VI
THE ROCK OF GIBRALTAR

CHAPTER VII
BLENHEIM

CHAPTER VIII

COMRADES IN ARMS

CHAPTER IX
ANNUS MIRABILIS

CHAPTER X
"OUR OWN MEN, SIR!"

CHAPTER XI
THE HARDEST FIGHT OF THEM ALL

CHAPTER XII
CONCLUSION
HISTORICAL SUMMARY

ILLUSTRATIONS
A MOUNTED OFFICER CAME GALLOPING UP
"NOW!" CAME THE ORDER
GEORGE FOUND HIMSELF ENGAGED IN A HAND TO HAND
ENCOUNTER
THE RESCUE OF MARLBOROUGH
MAP OF WESTERN EUROPE IN THE TIME OF QUEEN ANNE

CHAPTER I
A BOUT AT SINGLESTICK
"Get thee down, laddie, I tell thee."
This injunction, given for the third time, and in a broad north-country
dialect, came from the guard of the York and Newcastle coach, a
strange new thing in England. A wonderful vehicle the York and
Newcastle coach, covering the eighty-six long miles between the two
towns in the space of two-and-thirty hours, and as yet an object of
delight, and almost of awe, to the rustics of the villages and small
towns on that portion of the Great North Road.
It was the darkening of a stinging day in the latter part of December, in
the year 1701--it wanted but forty-eight hours to Christmas Eve--when
the coach pulled up at the principal inn of the then quiet little country
town of Darlington, a place which roused itself from its general
sleepiness only on market and fair days, or now, since the mail-coach
had begun to run, on the arrival or departure of the marvellous
conveyance, whose rattle over the cobble-stones drew every inhabitant
of the main street to the door.
No reply coming from the boy on the roof, the guard went on, "Eh, but
the lad must be frozen stark," and swinging himself up to the top of the
coach, he seized the dilatory passenger by the arm, saying, "Now, my
hearty, come your ways down; we gang na further to-day. Ye are as
stiff as a frozen poker."
"And no wonder," came a voice from below; "'tis not a day fit for man
or dog to be out a minute longer than necessary. Bring the bairn in,
Charley." The invitation came from a kindly and portly dame, the
hostess, who had come to the door to welcome such passengers as
might be disposed to put up for the night at the inn.
"I don't think I can stir," the boy replied; "I'm about frozen."
He spoke in low tones and as if but half awake. He was, in fact, just

dropping into a doze.
"Here, mates, catch hold," the guard cried, and without more ado the
lad was lowered down to the