'Why, it looks as though they had hung their linen up to dry all down the line.' 'True! They have more ensigns than ever I saw with so small a force,' Saxon answered, rising in his stirrups.

'One or two are blue, and the rest, as far as I can see for the sun shining upon them, are white, with some motto or device.' Whilst we had been conversing, the body of horse which formed the vanguard of the Protestant army had approached within a quarter of a mile or less of the town, when a loud, clear bugle-call brought them to a halt.

In each successive regiment or squadron the signal was repeated, so that the sound passed swiftly down the long array until it died away in the distance.

As the coil of men formed up upon the white road, with just a tremulous shifting motion along the curved and undulating line, its likeness to a giant serpent occurred again to my mind.
'I could fancy it a great boa,' I remarked, 'which was drawing its coils round the town.' 'A rattlesnake, rather,' said Reuben, pointing to the guns in the rear.
'It keeps all its noise in its tail.' 'Here comes its head, if I mistake not,' quoth Saxon.

'It were best perhaps that we stand at the side of the gate.' As he spoke a group of gaily dressed cavaliers broke away from the main body and rode straight for the town.