A Cavalier Canter

        It happened so quickly that Adam didn't even have the time to turn about.  One minute he was in darkness with his mates about him the next he was in a bright sunlit street with a crowd of people rushing past him in a panic.  His moment's hesitation was all the time it took to have the large stable doors behind him slammed shut and as he turned to push at them he could hear the large wooden bars being dropped into place.  “Now what?” Adam thought as he pressed his back against the stable doors and looked about him trying to place a date on the scene before him.  Neither the road nor the surrounding buildings were modern and the people were dressed in clothes of an age before those he had seen in 1805.  Why were the people running and more importantly what were they running away from Adam asked himself. 

He could hardly hear himself think for the noise.  People were screaming and shouting and falling over themselves to escape from whatever it was that was chasing them. He tried to focus on what he could hear in the distance then he heard it the noise of cannon-fire and it wasn't very far away.  At that point he was almost bowled off his feet as a young women cannoned into him having been pushed out of the way by a large fat man who was obviously no gentleman. 

Adam automatically caught her arm and helped her regain her feet.  She raised her tear stained face and with fear in her eyes said, “They are coming!”  “Who are coming?” Adam asked.  With a fleeting look of astonishment she said, “The Roundheads! The Roundheads are coming we must flee.”  And flee they did with Adam holding her arm and fending off anyone trying to cross in front of them they eventually found themselves with a crowd of other people in front a large gate in a high stone wall.  “The castle wall.” Adam thought to himself remembering his wander round the ruined castle on the Saturday afternoon following the Recruits' Company's passing out parade and where it was in relation to the Fighting Cocks. 

The young woman beside him was crying again so Adam patted her arm and asked, “Are you all right?” consciously remembering to speak in the more formal style of English that someone of that time might find normal.  While he did this his mind was still trying to cope with the fact that he was now back in the time of the English Civil War when the cavaliers and Roundheads were battling it out across the country. 

The young woman cried out, “I have been separated from my mother and brother and I must find them.”  “Let us find a spot by the wall where we can scan the crowd.  There is nothing we can achieve by pushing our way through this crowd in the hope of finding them.” Adam said in a reassuring way although he was sure that she was a few years older than him.  However, she was in no state to argue so he led her through the crowd until they were against the wall of a large building at the other end of the open space leading to the castle. 

When they turned with their backs against the wall Adam took the time to study her.