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The entrances were clogged by the crowd, and horsemen and footmen, with their long sharp sabres cut down their foes with enormous slaughter. In the heat of the conflict an arrow, thrown by the sinewy arm of an Indian, struck the steel casque of De Soto with such force that it rebounded some sixteen feet in the air.
They took up their position at a cross road behind hedges, and in the narrow way behind which it was supposed that the Duke of Albemarle would come, the foot lying in the field with their arms in rank and file, the horsemen holding their bridles in their hands. Every moment they expected to be up and doing, but the night drew on and no enemy appeared.
As the horsemen took the road the Colonel outlined his plan. "We'll give the horses a good rest to-night, for we ought to make camp early, and then start hunting the first thing in the morning. We've got enough horse-feed to last us three or four days if the water holds out that long. In that time we ought to get a lion if there's any there. I'll ride on now a bit and look for signs."
The conversation was abruptly stopped by a warning shout from one of the observers on a house-top close by. "Germans, sir." The officer and I rushed to a gap in the buildings and looked through our glasses, and there, on a small ridge a thousand yards off, a body of horsemen were seen approaching, riding hard, as if their very lives depended upon it.
While I was wondering what could have disturbed them I heard the shout of two Mongol horsemen, who were riding toward me, and leading my pony they had caught a dozen miles away. A score of men from the caravan had been in search of me since the morning after my disappearance, and had ridden many a mile over the desert."
The non-commissioned officers are intelligent and always ready for instruction; the riding compares favorably with cavalry of other nations, certainly far better than any I have ever seen abroad, either German, Russian, or French, and among all foreign countries we have the reputation of being the best horsemen in the world, which at all events has a good moral effect.
One of their riders hailed the young commander, saying, in a voice that rang like a trumpet: "Where is he that is born king of the Jews?" "I would I knew," was the answer of Vergilius. "So shall ye soon," said the stranger. "We have seen his star in the east and have come to worship him." The camels passed with long, stately strides. The horsemen resumed their journey.
Don Quixote acceded, and the show began again. But it was not long before a number of horsemen were galloping across the stage in pursuit of the two lovers.
On this ridge we could see a cloud of dust, and we were looking at it through glasses when a note came in from the right flank reporting a body of the enemy advancing on us from the east. Presently we made out on the edge of the dust a line of horsemen opening out on a kind of glade on the hillside, and the Brigadier ordered the guns to come into position where we were standing.
"Who are these coming?" "It is my father," she said, and drew me back deeper into shadow. After the horsemen and beside them ran men who bore planks and ropes, and it was plain that the jarl had found out his loss, and hastened to bridge the gap and cross the river. I saw that I could keep up the pretence no longer. "Let me walk behind you as your servant," I said.
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