the shouts of men in conflict.  Harry ordered his lieutenant to ride forward with half the troop to some rising ground just in front, and there they saw a combat going on between a party of Cavaliers and a force of Roundheads, much superior to them in numbers.  Harry joined the lieutenant, and sending back a man with orders to the remaining half of the troop to form a guard round the litter, he headed the advance party, and the twenty-five men rode headlong down into the scene of conflict.  It was a sharp fight for a few minutes, and then the accession of strength which the Cavaliers had gained gave them the superiority, and the Roundheads fell back, but in good order.

“You arrived just in time, sir,” the leader of the party engaged said.  “I am Master John Chillingworth, and am marching to Hardley House, which the Puritans are about to besiege.  There is no time to delay, for see you not on yonder hill the gleam of pikes?  That is the enemy’s footmen.  It is only an advanced party of their horse with which we have had this affair.  You cannot go forward in this direction.  There is a strong body of Roundheads lying a few miles to the north.”

Harry rode back to Lady Sidmouth, and after a consultation with her and with Master Chillingworth, they decided to throw themselves into Hardley House, where the addition of strength which they brought might enable them to beat off the Roundheads, and then to proceed on their way.  They learned indeed from a peasant that several bodies of Roundheads were advancing from various directions, and that Hardley House was strong and well defended.  Of the choice of evils, therefore, they thought this to be the lightest, and, after an hour’s hard riding, they arrived before its walls.  It was an old castellated building, with bastions and walls capable of standing a siege.  The party were gladly received by the master, Sir Francis Burdett, who had placed his castle in a posture of defense, but was short of men.  Upon the news of the approach of the enemy he had hastily driven a number of cattle into the yard, and had stores of provisions sufficient to stand a siege for some time.

In a short time the Parliament force, consisting of five hundred footmen and two hundred horse, appeared before the castle, and summoned it to surrender.  Sir Francis refused to do so, and fired a gun in token of defiance.  Soon a train was seen approaching in the distance, and four guns were dragged by the enemy to a point of high ground near the castle.  Here the Roundheads began to throw up a battery, but were mightily inconvenienced while doing so by the guns of the castle, which shot briskly against them.  Working at night, however, in two days they completed the battery, which, on the third morning, opened fire upon the castle.  The guns were much heavier than those upon the walls, and the shot, directed at a curtain between two towers, battered the stone sorely.  The Parliament footmen were drawn back a space from