If the servants had had a tenth part of the
valour of our poor fellows who lie dead at Newburry and Alresford we
could have brought her off; but these were but Frenchmen, and were
overawed by those dragoons, or dragons, in their cuirasses.
When poor Meg was dragged out, I held her fast, and tumbled out with
her; but even as we fell, she was rent from me, and I think I must
have been half-stunned. At any rate, I found myself flung back into
our own carriage, and the door shut upon me, while the horses were
turned round, and we were made to gallop back by the road we had
come.
Our women, screaming and crying like mad things, helped me up from
the bottom of the carriage. I bade them hold their tongues and stop
the horses. The one they could not do, the other they would not. So
I was forced to open the door myself, and shout to the coachman to
stop that instant. He would not at first, but happily I saw a
pistol, which one of the wretches had dropped in the scuffle, and I
threatened him with it. Then, when my voice could be heard, I
ordered the two outriders to gallop after the coach in which my
sister had been carried off, and see where she was taken, while we
made as much speed as we could after them; but the cowardly rogues
absolutely began to cry, and say that the leader of the party had
turned the horses' heads, and declared that he would shoot any one
dead who attempted to follow.
Luckily I was in a close-fitting black cloth suit, being still in
mourning for our blessed martyr, and intending to make my toilette at
Rambouillet.
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