"I thank you, gentlemen," said De Courcy simply.

It was a desperate enterprise, and would never have been attempted but
for the love these gallant men bore to our great chief. For his sake
they were going to throw themselves upon death.

"Charge!" Half mad with excitement, I took my place with them, behind
De Courcy, who rode several lengths in advance. From a trot to a canter,
from a canter to a gallop, and then with one mighty rush we swept down
on the foe. A body of horse dashed across our path; we brushed them
aside like a handful of chaff, and never slackened pace.

"The Admiral! The Admiral! For the Cause! Remember Jarnac!" we shouted
hoarsely, as our straining animals flew over the intervening space.

Faster and faster grew the mad gallop, until, like a living whirlwind,
we flung ourselves on a line of bristling pikes.

"For the Admiral!" cried our leader joyously.

"Anjou! Anjou!" came back the defiant answer, and then we were in the
midst of them. We had made a gap, but at terrible expense.

Hotter and hotter waxed the strife; swords flashed, pikes ran red,
shouts of triumph mingled with groans of despair; men went down and were
trampled underfoot in the horrible press; we were tossed and buffeted
from side to side, but we fought on with savage desperation, and the
cry, "For the Admiral!" still rose in triumph. Truly it could not be
said that we grudged our lives that day!