The market-place was full of townspeople
fleeing in disorder; but there was as yet no
sign of any foeman ready to attack, and Dick
judged he had some time before him to make
ready his defense.
The two houses at the end stood deserted,
with open doors, as the inhabitants had left
them in their flight, and from these he had
the furniture hastily tossed forth and
piled into a barrier in the entry of the lane.
A hundred men were placed at his disposal,
and of these he threw the more part into the
houses, where they might lie in shelter
and deliver their arrows from the windows.
With the rest, under his own immediate eye,
he lined the barricade.
Meanwhile the utmost uproar and confusion
had continued to prevail throughout the town ;
and what with the hurried clashing of bells,
the sounding of trumpets, the swift movement
of bodies of horses, the cries of the command
ers, and the shrieks of vomer, the noise was
almost deafening to the ear. Presently, little
by little, the tumult began to subside; and
soon offer, files of men in armour and bodies of
archers began to a-scmble and form in line of
battle in the market place.
A large portion of tin- body were in murrey
and blue, and in the mounted knight who or
dered their array Dick re< og lized Sir Daniel
Brackley.
Then there befell a long pause, which was
followed by the almost simultaneous sounding
of foer trumpets from four different quarters
of the town. A fifth rang in answer from the
market-place, and at the sumo moment the
files began to move and a shower of arrows
rattled about the barricade, and sounded like
blows upon the wails of the two Hanking
houses.
