The town of Taunton lies very quiet beneath us, and there are few lights for so early an hour, seeing that it has not yet gone ten.

It is clear that Monmouth's forces have not reached it yet, else had there been some show of camp-fires in the valley; for though it is warm enough to lie out in the open, the men must have fires to cook their victual.' 'The army could scarce have come so far,' said the pastor.

'They have, I hear, been much delayed by the want of arms and by the need of discipline.

Bethink ye, it was on the eleventh day of the month that Monmouth landed at Lyme, and it is now but the night of the fourteenth.
There was much to be done in the time.' 'Four whole days!' growled the old soldier.

'Yet I expected no better, seeing that they have, so far as I can hear, no tried soldiers amongst them.