Hector ran back there.  “The two rear ranks will now fire!” he said.

The men dropped their pikes, and two volleys of musketry were poured into the insurgents.  Those of the front line were swept away by the fire, and for a moment the whole recoiled.

“Now, men,” Hector shouted, “cross the breastwork and sweep them away with your pikes!”

With a cheer the men leapt over the embankment.  There was room for ten abreast, and in a treble line with levelled spears they bore down upon the rebels.  The charge was irresistible.  A few of the leaders of the peasants threw themselves on to the spears and died there, the others strove, but in vain, to fly.  Their comrades behind, ignorant of what was going on, still pressed up, and it was not until the screams and shouts of those in front, and the pressure downwards, brought the column to a stand and then bore it backward, that they learned that the defenders had taken the offensive, and were sweeping all before them.  Then a panic arose, and the peasants rushed down the road, the tenants above saluting them as they passed with another volley of rocks.  Halfway down the hill Hector halted his men, and led them up to the intrenchment again over a road encumbered with dead bodies.

“I think that will do,” he said.  “After the tale those who have got down safely will have to tell, we may be sure they will do nothing until morning, and it may well be that they may think it advisable to be off to attack some other place not so strongly defended.  However, we will presently beat them up, and if possible capture their cannon, and without them they could not hope to take any fortified house well defended.”

For a time there was a prodigious din in the valley, sounds of men shouting and quarrelling, of others trying in vain to make their voices heard, and to address the excited peasants.  In an hour it quieted down, and by midnight all was still.  Hector had been busy with his preparations.

“How many horses have we?” he asked.

“Well nigh a hundred, colonel.”

“That is more than enough.  Now, MacIntosh, do you and the men here go down the road and pitch the bodies over; we should never get the horses over them.”

Then he went to where the tenants were still waiting.  “Now, my lads,” he said, “I want a big gap made in one of these walls we built today, wide enough for a horse to pass through it, and strong planks laid across the fosse.”  Then he ascended the ladder up to the battlements.  He found the baroness and her daughter standing over the gateway.

“Is all over?” they asked, as he came up to them.

“Yes, for the present.  We have beaten them handsomely, and without the loss of a single man.”

“Will they attack again in the morning, do you think?”