'Now, friends, cut the traces!' A dozen knives were at work in a moment, and the kicking, struggling animals scampered off, leaving their burdens behind them.

Saxon sprang off his horse and set the example in dragging the waggon across the roadway, while some of the peasants, under the direction of Reuben Lockarby and of Master Joshua Pettigrue, arranged a couple of other carts to block the way fifty yards further down.

The latter precaution was to guard against the chance of the royal horse riding through the fields and attacking us from behind.

So speedily was the scheme conceived and carried out, that within a very few minutes of the first alarm we found ourselves protected front and rear by a lofty barricade, while within this improvised fortress was a garrison of a hundred and fifty men.
'What firearms have we amongst us ?' asked Saxon hurriedly.
'A dozen pistols at the most,' replied the elderly Puritan, who was addressed by his companions as Hope-above Williams.

'John Rodway, the coachman, hath his blunderbuss.