Explore "The Raid" by Egerton Castle on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
"_List his discourse of war, and you shall hear_ _A fearful battle rendered you in music._" (_King Henry V._).
The forest was now alive with hoarse, guttural cries, as if the wooded depths had released some giant brood of ravens. And then, helter-skelter, even as the last belated hussar, blood streaming from a black gash in his forehead, clattered heavily rearmost of his comrades, reins loose, clinging to the saddle -- they came! Squat riders on squat horses -- cattle and man as shaggy and unkempt one as the other -- with long tags of hair bobbing round wild-bearded faces, pointed fur caps drawn down to the eyes, sheepskin-clad knees up almost to the chin, stirruped with rope, brandishing rough spears; miscellaneous booty -- a goose, a sucking-pig, a frying-pan, maybe a cottage clock -- swinging at the saddle-bow! They came, shouting their crow-call, exulting, squealing, grunting! They came, filled the road with clamour and clatter, and stench... and were gone before Steven could draw, it seemed to him, the full breath of his amazement!