Theodore Winthrop

“ Boom sullenly, Great Tom of Lincoln, the dirge of Freedom!
Ring solemnly, Great Tom of Lincoln, to Colonel Brothertoft the stern command revived. Syllable again along the west wind the sentence of exile, —
“Westward ho! A new home across the seas!” Every day the nation cringed baser and baser. Every day the great bell, from its station high above all the land, shouted more vehemently to the lord of Brothertoft Manor to shake the dust from his feet, and withdraw himself from among a people grown utterly dastard. ”

“ In a moment a score of men were mounted and dashing southward. Ten miles to go. They knew every foot of it. The twenty white horses galloped close, and took their leaps together steadily, — an heroic sight to be seen in that clear, frosty night of October!
The fire of dawn already glimmered in the east when they began to see another fire on the southern horizon. The Colonel’s heart told him whose towers were burning. They rode their best; but they had miles to go, and the red flames outran them.
Colonel Brothertoft said not a word. ”

“ Every leap took him farther away from the peaked turrets of Brothertoft Manor-House, — his home, midway between the towers of Lincoln Cathedral and Boston on the Witham.
Late at night he rode wearily back to Horncastle. He first took care that those famous horses were fed a good feed, after their good fight and brave chase, and then laid himself down in his cloak to sleep beside Cromwell and Fairfax. Presently a youth on a white horse came galloping into the town, up to the quaint house where the Colonel quartered, and shouted for him. Brothertoft looked out at the window. ”