Now if we lie by all day, and push on at dusk, keeping off the main road and making our way across Salisbury Plain and the Somersetshire downs, we shall be less likely to come to harm.' 'But what if Monmouth be engaged before we come up to him ?' I asked.
'Then we shall have missed a chance of getting our throats cut.

Why, man, supposing that he has been routed and entirely dispersed, would it not be a merry conceit for us to appear upon the scene as two loyal yeomen, who had ridden all the way from Hampshire to strike in against the King's enemies?
We might chance to get some reward in money or in land for our zeal.

Nay, frown not, for I was but jesting.

Breathe our horses by walking them up this hill.

My jennet is as fresh as when we started, but those great limbs of thine are telling upon the grey.' The patch of light in the east had increased and broadened, and the sky was mottled with little pink feathers of cloud.