need was there for exhortation; rage seemed to have refreshed the strength of the men, who, with loud and fierce huzzas, rushed again to the encounter. They were met with a defiance not less eager than their own, and for a time the battle was again obscured under the thick haze engendered by the incessant discharges of firearms. From this gloom a yell of triumph was sometimes heard, as momentary success inspired those who struggled within; and the frequent twinkle of polished steel glimmering through the murky atmosphere, and the occasional apparition of a speeding horseman, seen for an instant as he came into the clear light, told of the dreadful earnestness and zeal with which the unseen hosts had now joined in conflict. The impression of this contact was various. Parts of each force broke before their antagonists, and in those spots where the array of the fight might be discerned through the shade of the forest or the smoke of battle, both royalists and Whigs were found, at the same instant, to have driven back detached fragments of their opponents. Foemen were mingled hand to hand, through and among their adverse ranks, and for a time no conjecture might be indulged as to the side to which victory would turn.
The flanking detachments seemed to have fallen into the same confusion and might have been seen retreating and advancing upon the rough slopes of the mountain in partisan bodies, separated from their lines, thus giving to the scene an air of bloody riot, more resembling the sudden insurrection of mutineers from the same ranks than the orderly war of trained soldiers.
Through the din and disorder of this fight it is fit that I should take time to mark the wanderings of Galbraith Robinson, whose exploits this day would not ill deserve the pen of Froissart. The doughty sergeant had, for a time, retained his post in the ranks of the Amherst Rangers, and with them had
