CHAPTER VII.
THE BATTLE OF TALLAND COVE.
"Now entertain conjecture of a time When creeping murmur and the poring dark Fills the wide vessel of the universe.

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." The _avant-garde_ of the Looe Diehards occupied, and had been occupying for two dark hours--in a sitting posture--the ridge of rock which, on its eastern side, sheltered Talland Cove.

One may say, considering the heavy dew and the nature of the ridge--of slate formation and sharply serrated--they had clung to it obstinately.
Above them the clear and constellated dome of night turned almost perceptibly around its pole.