Rely
upon it, in many homes of England (if the Manchestrians leave them
standing) there will be one family portrait that our children will most
delight to honor. Pointing out to strangers the crowning glory of their
house, they will pass by grave effigies of lawyers, ecclesiastics, and
statesmen, and pause opposite to a martial figure, dressed in the
uniform of a light dragoon. All his ancestors shall give precedence to
the simple soldier, who rode that day in the van of the Six Hundred.
Yes, we will leave that charge alone. The most hackneyed of professional
_litterateurs_ might shrink from sitting down to his writing-desk, to
make merchandise of such a "deed of _derring-do_." Nevertheless, Royston
Keene bore his part in it manfully; and the troopers talk yet of the
feats of skill and strength wrought by his sabre.
The immunity from dangers of shot and steel for which he had been always
remarkable, did not seem to have deserted him; for he had come out of
the batteries without a scratch, and had fought his way through more
than one knot and peloton of the enemy, with no scathe beyond a slight
flesh-wound.
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