The Broken Font: A Story of the Civil War, Vol. 2 (of 2)Sherer, Moyle
History
The Broken Font: A Story of the Civil War, Vol. 2 (of 2)
Sherer, Moyle
Great Britain -- History -- Civil War, 1642-1649 -- Fiction
By two o’clock on the following morning Juxon had cut away a bar, and
made fast his cord. Amid the breathless good wishes of his
fellow-prisoners he began to descend, clad only in a pair of stout
drawers and his shirt. The cord, though strong enough, was so small,
that it cut his hands like a knife; but he got safely down to within
twelve feet of the water, and from hence dropped into the river; and
gaining the opposite side, was helped up the bank by the stout arm of
his faithful blacksmith, and hurried to a hedge, behind which he found
dry clothes and his groom with two horses. To dress himself, to snap a
hunter’s mouthful, and to take one draught of cordial spirit from the
leathern bottle of his servant, was the glad work of a few minutes;
and by eight o’clock on the same morning he was forty miles on the
road to Shrewsbury. Among other friends at the royal head-quarters he
found Sir Charles Lambert and Arthur Heywood, and at once resolved to
follow the fortunes of the camp as a volunteer chaplain to the
regiment of horse with which they were serving. He was present with
them in the battle of Keinton; and though decided himself not to use
arms, he rode upon the flank of the regiment when it charged.
The horse of Sir Charles being killed under him, Juxon alighted, in an
exposed and perilous position, and instantly gave his own to remount
his friend. Here it was that, soon after, the gallant boy Arthur,
returning wounded from the front, fell fainting from his saddle; and
his frightened horse flying fast away, he would have been left
helpless on the field before the advancing enemy, had not Juxon been a
witness of his distress and danger. Hastening to the bleeding boy, he
lifted him on his back, and so carried him a mile and a half to the
top of Edge Hill, where a surgeon dressed his hurt, and pronounced it
to be severe, but not dangerous, or likely to be attended with loss of
limb or any very serious consequences. Having seen Arthur placed
safely in a cart with other wounded officers going to a village in the
rear, Juxon remained upon the hill, to which the royal army retired
at sunset; and, as he saw Sir Charles and his own favourite roan horse
coming safely back at the head of a squadron which had suffered severe
losses, his heart swelled thankfully within him. He shook the hand of
Sir Charles with a tearful cordiality; and they ate their cold and
scanty supper by a little fire in the open fields, with sentiments of
gratitude and of piety at once elevated and pure. The crown of England
was hanging as it were on a bush, and they were among its guardians.
Moreover, there was in both their bosoms a fine consciousness of what
was passing in their respective hearts:--to see the noble and
miraculous change in a man whom he had once, and with reason,
despised, was a rich reward to Juxon,--while Sir Charles sat in the
presence of his friend with the sweet and gracious feeling that he had
been to him as a guardian angel and as a voice from Heaven.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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