"By the eternal Jupiter!" cried Caliver, toiling and stumbling up an ascent that led to the park-gate, as the sudden explosion, followed immediately after by angry voices, broke the solemn silence of the night,--"by the eternal Jupiter, halt!--there's the tories! They're beating up the old cock's quarters!" "Let us retreat," cried one of his attendants, "and get our horses." "Halt--hark!" exclaimed the soldier, "there's Harry Falconer's voice! the dogs are murdering him! Prepare to charge, and hold your tongues.--Now follow me, and I'll have a whole regiment on them.--Halloo!" he cried at the top of his voice, as if really calling upon a competent force of both horse and foot; "Make bayonet work of it, you light-infantry dogs! Horsemen, over the fence, and surround the vagabonds!--No quarter!--Double quick-step, march! Charge the villains!" And with this valiant stratagem, the officer ran boldly up the hill, followed by his two companions,--though not until they had heard behind them, or fancied they heard, the clatter as of a party of horsemen descending the hill they had already left. As Caliver rushed into the park, he again heard the voice of his friend, and rushing up, beheld, to his great amazement, the band of tories dwindled into a single individual, lying across Falconer's breast, and in the very act of transfixing him with his own weapon. "By the eternal Jupiter! what means all this?" he cried, dragging Hyland off his prey. "What! my jolly gentleman-volunteer, hah! What means this, you absurd young cut-throats?" "It means," cried Falconer, rising and darting at his foe with unexampled fury, "that I've nabbed a tory lieutenant, and I'll have his blood!" He took his adversary at a disadvantage, for Hyland was still held by the captain; and before this bewildered peace-maker could interfere, the combatants were again rolling together upon the ground, only that their positions were reversed, for Falconer was now uppermost, and armed with Caliver's sword, which he had snatched out of the captain's hand, not knowing, nor indeed caring, what had become of his own. At this juncture, a new feature was given to the battle-field. "Enemies!" cried Caliver's two attendants; and the cry was echoed by a fierce yell, like the war-whoop of a savage, coming from the gate, through which galloped they knew not how many dusky figures, looking to the eyes of the revellers like the fiends of darkness themselves. The astounded captain, deserted in a moment by his attendants, looked up, and beheld with still greater amazement, the apparition, as it seemed, of Ephraim Patch astride his gallant gray; only that this impression was put to flight by the spectre urging the steed right upon him, crying at the same time in a voice of thunder, "Down with the rebel dogs! trample them to death!" and the next moment, the unlucky officer was struck to the ground by the blow of a hoof, and there lay insensible.