The next moment placed Derby at the extremity of the opposing lines. “King Charles and England’s royalty!” was the shout that burst from his lips, and, although it was heard by the enemy, for a few moments they fell back from the single arm of the loyal nobleman. There seemed something supernatural in his bearing, so calm, and yet so furious. Taking advantage of their inactivity, he dashed through the rear. A gleam of sunshine flashed on his armour, and hope entered his soul, as he found himself at the top of the steep and sweeping descent which leads to the town. It was then rocky and precipitous, but his horse never stumbled. For a moment he wheeled round, and no followers were near, except young Tyldesley, and the page. Stern was the expression on the countenance of the former; but the latter, though pale, displayed a heroism still wilder. And yet his sword had not, throughout the battle, been unsheathed, and he had forced a passage without giving a wound. “Brave page!” exclaimed the earl. “Still, thou oughtest to have used thy sword; thine arm might have sent the blow with power sufficient to wound--aye, to kill!” At this moment two of the enemy, who had pursued the leader of the royalists, rushed on him. His horse plunged furiously, and turned himself altogether on one of the assailants--thus exposing his rider. Instantly that assailant sprung forward with a loud shout of joy; but that shout was ended in a dying shriek, as the sword of the page passed through his body. The other fell by the earl’s own hand. For a brief space the page looked with something of satisfaction on the blood-stained sword. But as a drop fell upon that small hand, a shudder passed over his frame, and his eye was fixed, with unnatural light, on the spot. “It is of a foul colour!” he exclaimed. “Good God! and have these fair hands been stained with human blood? What will Anne Houghton,” he added in a low tone, “think of me now?” “Nay, nay,” hastily replied the earl, “repent not the deed at the sight of blood. I thank thee, brave youth. But now, what movement is to be made? Shall we rush upon Wigan without our followers?” “I’ll defend the church,” said the page, “as the brave countess defended her home.”