The chief held a council, and it was determined that a forced march should be made at once by another route, more to the left, and it was thought that in this way they might reach the base of the slopes by evening.  The distance was not great, and could easily have been traversed by the men; the flocks and herds, however, could not be hurried much.  A messenger was despatched to the hills for assistance, and the march began.  It was a tedious movement.  Felix was wearied, and walked in a drowsy state.  Towards six o’clock, as he guessed, the trees began to thin, and the column reached the first slopes of the hills.  Here about thirty shepherds joined them, a contingent from the nearest camp.  It was considered that the danger was now past, and that the gipsies would not attack them on the hill; but it was a mistake.

A large body almost immediately appeared, coming along the slope on the right, not less than two hundred; and from their open movements and numbers it was evident that they intended battle.  The flocks and herds were driven hastily into a coombe, or narrow valley, and there left to their fate.  All the armed men formed in a circle; the women occupied the centre.  Felix took his stand outside the circle by a gnarled and decayed oak.  There was just there a slight rise in the ground, which he knew would give him some advantage in discharging his arrows, and would also allow him a clear view.  His friends earnestly entreated him to enter the circle, and even sought to bring him within it by force, till he explained to them that he could not shoot if so surrounded, and promised if the gipsies charged to rush inside.

Felix unslung his quiver, and placed it on the ground before him; a second quiver he put beside it; four or five arrows he stuck upright in the sward, so that he could catch hold of them quickly; two arrows he held in his left hand, another he fitted to the string.  Thus prepared, he watched the gipsies advance.  They came walking their short wiry horses to within half a mile, when they began to trot down the slope; they could not surround the shepherds because of the steep-sided coombe and some brushwood, and could advance only on two fronts.  Felix rapidly became so excited that his sight was affected, and his head whirled.  His heart beat with such speed that his breath seemed going.  His limbs tottered, and he dreaded lest he should faint.

His intensely nervous organization, strung up to its highest pitch, shook him in its grasp, and his will was powerless to control it.  He felt that he should disgrace himself once more before these rugged but brave shepherds, who betrayed not the slightest symptom of agitation.  For one hour of Oliver’s calm courage and utter absence of nervousness he would have given years of his life.  His friends in the circle observed his agitation, and renewed their entreaties to him to come inside it.  This only was needed to complete his discomfiture.  He lost his head altogether; he saw nothing but a confused mass of yellow and red rushing towards him, for each of the gipsies wore a yellow or red scarf, some about the body, some over the shoulder, others round the head.  They were now within three hundred yards.