Ivanhoe

The Miller pressed furiously forward, dealing blows with either end of

his weapon alternately, and striving to come to half-staff distance,

while Gurth defended himself against the attack, keeping his hands about

a yard asunder, and covering himself by shifting his weapon with great

celerity, so as to protect his head and body. Thus did he maintain

the defensive, making his eye, foot, and hand keep true time, until,

observing his antagonist to lose wind, he darted the staff at his face

with his left hand; and, as the Miller endeavoured to parry the thrust,

he slid his right hand down to his left, and with the full swing of the

weapon struck his opponent on the left side of the head, who instantly

measured his length upon the green sward.

"Well and yeomanly done!" shouted the robbers; "fair play and Old

England for ever! The Saxon hath saved both his purse and his hide, and

the Miller has met his match."

"Thou mayst go thy ways, my friend," said the Captain, addressing Gurth,

in special confirmation of the general voice, "and I will cause two of

my comrades to guide thee by the best way to thy master's pavilion, and

to guard thee from night-walkers that might have less tender consciences

than ours; for there is many one of them upon the amble in such a night

as this. Take heed, however," he added sternly; "remember thou hast

refused to tell thy name--ask not after ours, nor endeavour to discover

who or what we are; for, if thou makest such an attempt, thou wilt come

by worse fortune than has yet befallen thee."

Gurth thanked the Captain for his courtesy, and promised to attend to

his recommendation. Two of the outlaws, taking up their quarter-staves,

and desiring Gurth to follow close in the rear, walked roundly forward

along a by-path, which traversed the thicket and the broken ground

adjacent to it. On the very verge of the thicket two men spoke to his

conductors, and receiving an answer in a whisper, withdrew into the

wood, and suffered them to pass unmolested. This circumstance induced

Gurth to believe both that the gang was strong in numbers, and that they

kept regular guards around their place of rendezvous.

When they arrived on the open heath, where Gurth might have had some

trouble in finding his road, the thieves guided him straight forward to

the top of a little eminence, whence he could see, spread beneath him

in the moonlight, the palisades of the lists, the glimmering pavilions

pitched at either end, with the pennons which adorned them fluttering

in the moonbeams, and from which could be heard the hum of the song with

which the sentinels were beguiling their night-watch.