descent, were rocky and barren, only nurturing patches of dwarf furze, and spare grass, that the furze checked as it struggled into growth. At the side turned from the village, it was clothed, however, with oak and ash-trees; which inserting their fibrous roots between rocky clefts, drew from the meagre soil a sustenance scarce to be expected. A little streamlet, fringed with green turf, flowed by the foot of this declivity; and a lesser hill, more recently but more thickly planted, also arose from its edge; so that here was a secluded little glen, shut out at every side from observation. And hither came the inhabitants of the village, to crouch beneath the concealing foliage, and in the panting silence of extreme fear, until their dreaded enemies should have passed away.

The frightened hare, when she has gained some distance from her pursuers, will pause, sit up, and lift her ears in the direction whence she apprehends danger; and so, after a pause of consternation, the closely-couched people began to question each other, and to start opinions or conjectures in more audible tones. Inquiries ran through them, as to the presence of members of their separate families; and low wailings, interrupted by sudden calis to attention, arose

within the little shadowed solitude, as the mother missed her offspring, or the daughter her parent. But the nearer and nearer noise of the galloping horsemen, distinct through the mild silence of slumbering Nature, soon hushed every breath; and, in the eager pause of fearful anticipation, every bosom became selfoccupied.

Shawn-a-Gow, clutching his son by the arm, had led on the body of fugitives. Arrived at the turfy margin of the silent and almost invisible streamlet, he caused him to sit down; and then commanding him not to stir till he should return, the smith, accompanied by the intrepid little Peter Rooney, ascended the wooded hill, gained the summit which overlooked the village, descended a little on the other side, and there, lying flat among a clump of furze, both cast down their looks to note the proceedings of the invading yeomen.

No moon hung in the heavens; yet, though it was now the noon of a summer night, darkness, such as swathes the moonless nights of winter, did not reign around or below. Objects continued vaguely visible in the hamlet, and to eyes long familiar with their shape, place, and

other identifying features, could not be confounded with each other.

The watchers on the hill heard the thronging tramp of the horses' feet on the road to the right, past the hamlet. With increasing clamour they heard them enter the straggling street, if so it might be called, and drive along that quarter where the poorer cabins were situated; and as they passed beneath, the swinging of the iron scabbards against the stirrups was loudly audible, and their closelyformed array, just a mass of shade deeper than that which surrounded it, became undefinedly visible.

They proceeded towards the more respectable houses. Shawn-a-Gow raised his head above its screen of furze, and, with a muttered curse, saw them draw up, in obedience to the word "Halt!" before his own dwelling. There was a loud jingling of their arms and accoutrements as the men jumped from their saddles; then a score voices cried, "Open!" and then he could hear the breaking in of his own door.

He judged that some entered, while the rest repaired to other houses in the village: for, crash after crash, echoed from different points,

followed by imprecations and threats of future vengeance, as the enraged party ascertained the flight of the former inmates. But quickly were blended with their high and angry tones the cries of some few who, through fear or accident, had not joined the fugitives, and who were now dragged from their hiding-places, to the upper end of the street, where stood the commander directing the proceedings.

And still much bustle went on before his own house. Lights glanced backward and forward, just touching, with gleaming outlines, the forms of those who bore them. He concluded they were searching and rifling his dwelling; and after some pause, Shawn raised himself higher from his concealment, to ascertain if the feeble wailings of a woman's voice did not mingle with the louder vociferation of the yeomen. But he mistook; or else the tones became fainter, or were lost in the general uproar.

"They 're at their work," he said to Peter Rooney, in a cadence resembling the growling bellow of the bull, half terror, half a thirst for vengeance, when the tearing dogs have at last obtained the gripe that tames him.

"The night o' the great slaughter is come,"

answered Peter: "whisht! that's Whaley's voice above the rest; they have some o' the poor neighbours cotched."

The words "Tie him up!" were those to which Peter directed Shawn's attention, pronounced by the commander in a loud pitch of voice.

"An', d'you hear, Shawn? they're dhraggin the crature along-an' it's Saundhers Smyly, the ould throoper, that's callin' out Croppy

rascal.""

Shawn raised his head again, as he asked, "Isn't that like Bridget's cry among 'em? An' didn't I see her thrudgin wid the rest o' the women? Blood an' furies no; now I recollect, she went back to get away the last o' the papers.'

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They won't do harum upon her," said Peter Rooney.

"I'll go back for her," resumed the smith. "You'll do no sich thing, Jack Delouchery; have you a mind to give yoursef up into their hands, an lose us the sthrongest arum an' one o' the bravest heart o' the Waxford throops o' the Union! Lie down, man! lie down, I bid you!" continued Peter, with an energy that