of the President, when he arose to pass sentence of immediate death, with however—marking it as a favour the attendance of a clergyman. Accordingly, the same clergyman who that morning had performed the marriage ceremony at Hartley Court, attended the condemned culprit. It has been said that an attack upon Enniscorthy town, by the insurgents, was expected to take place before morning. Therefore all loyal men deemed it particularly expedient that Sir Thomas should die at an early period of the night, lest he might be rescued, and prove an efficient and formidable leader. CHAPTER XXIX. THE night fell, and, as if to sympathize with the coming scene, fell darkly. No moon was in the sky; unusually for the time of year, black masses of clouds rolled overhead. In the court of Enniscorthy Castle a gallows now confronted its younger brother, the triangle. At a short distance from the more fatal though not less terrible apparatus, the yeomen who had lately guarded it, stood in a group, their eyes turned to the spot where a single taper, held by their commander, Captain Talbot, gave feeble and imperfect light to direct the proceedings of two men who bore a dead body, just taken down from the place of execution. "He was a good ould Protestan' gentleman, afther all, an' his hand never aginst the poor. He'll be missed in the County of Waxford, when these times are over," said one of the hitherto mute spectators. "By this soord," said another, "I didn't like the business this morning. Did you see the poor daughter? Her screeches went to my heart." "They say her new husband 'ill folly his father-in-law." I'd "And why not?" asked a gruff voice. "Them that purtends to be Protestants, to go and join with the bloody Romans! sthring up all such, the same day I'd let a Roman live-Why not, I say?" 66 Why not?" echoed another voice, though not of their group. "Who spoke?" they asked each other. But none could tell, for no one except themselves now appeared within view. After a pause they resumed their conversation. "For all that," said the yeoman who had first spoken, "if I was in young Capt'n Talbot's coat, I wouldn't be the man to stand foremost against Sir Thomas Hartley. Many a time he broke bread and dhrauk healths wid him he watched this night till he saw him dead, dead.” -66 Dead, dead," repeated the same voice which had before somewhat startled the yeomen. The startled group looked fearfully around, and then into each others' faces. The last words sounded as if a screech-owl from the castle turret had syllabled them. "Could it be?"-began the most superstitious of the men, about to utter a fearful thought-"Wuisht!" cried the gruff soldier, 66 listen, it may come again." There are moments when supernatural fear will overpower the strongest minds. In the present instance, under the concealing gloom of night, life had just been forced from a human being, who a moment before breathed an inhabitant of earth. The man might for an instant conjecture that the screaming words thus addressed to witnesses of the deed, upon the spot where it had been done, were uttered by the troubled spirit, as it flitted from its mortal tenement. "It will come again," the gruff yeoman was answered. "I spoke the words that make ye tremble, cowards as ye are." They now saw a female figure advancing to them from behind one of the towers of the old building. "Ye have done a murder," continued the woman, confronting them," a murder ye shall answer for, while there's a pike over a Croppy's shoulder. They're going to bury the body. But bury it deep as they can dig, 'twill rise in judgment against the murderers." "This is your ghost, Dan," said the gruff yeoman. Croppy jade!" "Seize the "Seize her, seize her-Ay, this is your word to every one, nowa-days," she replied, stepping backward and forward by turns. "Be off, or I'll cut you down!" "Don't waste your valour upon me. You will want it all shortly"—and she began to sing at a ringing pitch, a verse of one of the insurgent songs "Vive la, the black potatoes, What will these poor yeomen do?" "Don't keep gapin' so, Dan," said the gruff fellow, as he laid hands on her. "Come along, you baggage. I'll put you where you must alter your tune." She struggled to close observers it might have seemed only with a show of struggling. The door of the castle was opened to the summons of her captor, and with heavy curses he pushed her in. "By the great Saizor, you sthrappado, you, if there's more o' your jaw I'll disciple you, so I will," quoth Saunders Smyly, who received her in the ruined hall. As Captain Whaley's deputy, he hnd the government of the prison; and he strided about, rattling his keys, with all the consequence of a military gaoler. "What threat do you dare to make ?" she demanded, suddenly advancing upon the vapouring Bobadil "I say!" he roared out, much startled by the expression of her countenance, which looked alarmingly fierce in the dim light afforded by a single sconce that hung against the rough wall. "I say! by the left thigh o' Pharoh's horse" "And I say, by the right thigh o' Pharaoh's horse," pursuing him as he retreated, "that I'll roll your head at my feet, you Harry-long-legs." And snatching at his sword, she drew it from the scabbard, and flourished it close to his ears. "Comrade!" cried the still retreating cavalier, addressing the sentinel who guarded the door-" charge her in the rear! Nations, honest woman, what are you at? asy, asy, I bid you!" as she forced him against the wall.-"Comrade! cut her down! she'll gash me, by the great Saizor." Hah, hah!" laughed his armed comrade-" by the gun in my hand, the woman is batin' him. Why don't you give her some o' the back-slaps, an' front-cuts, you'd be curry whibblin' round our heads, Saundhers? Now's the time to show us the good o' them.” "Answer me what I shall ask of you," said the conquering heroine, while Smyly cringed against the wall. She spoke in a tone of voice that could not be heard by the sentinel. "Away wid yoursef, an' I will." "In what part of the castle is Sir William Judkin confined?" "He's in the far tower." 66 Are you certain of that ?" "I'd gi' you my oath I locked him in there awhile agone, wid this kay." 66 Then, there's your sword again, you boasting coward!” "An' now, you sthrappado," grinned the trooper, waxing valiant again, "what talk had you? I'i" "Will you?” quickly drawing a large pistol from under her peculiar dress, and presenting it as quickly;-"What?" "I mane to say, by the horns o' Moses, only you're a kind of a woman, I'd thransmogrophy you." "Well, be it so; but we had better remain friends. I have here some of the sweet waters of oblivion." She produced a black bottle, and applied it to her mouth, rather with the appearance of drink. ing some of its contents, than doing so in reality. If there was any one propensity more palpable than cowardice and cruelty in the hero of the cat-o'-nine tails, it was love of good liquor. He could pour whiskey into himself for a long while ere it produced the slightest addition to his usual exaggeration of speech and manner. Now his teeth watered as he saw the mad-looking woman apparently gulp down that which, from the fragrance it emitted, could be nothing less than the most potent kind of the beverage he loved. "Here," said the female, to his great relief, "drink and be valorous." He seized the bottle, and took a long, long draught. Yet in the very act of tasting liberally of her bounty, Saunders planned how he should master the tigress before him. He proposed to retire and order in a reinforcement to seize her. But ere he had made an end either of his libation or his resolves, she snatched the bottle from his grasp, and, approaching the jealous sentinel, invited him also to drink. 66 "Whoever or whatever you are," observed the man, here goes to taste the oneen." He too imbibed a good mouthful, though nothing to compare to one of Saunders Smyly's least. That gallant trooper however, crying fair play, pleaded for another turn; and, accordingly, the bottle was once more at his mercy. The woman now slowly withdrew from the bold yeomen. While they continued to pass the bottle from one to another, each doing his best not to be outdone by his comrade, she seated herself with her back against the wall. "She's as mad as a March hare," remarked Saunders to the sentinel, after perhaps his fourth mouthful. Hu, hu! it's wicked sthrong," replied the other, shaking his head, a sign it's the right sort. But she was your match, Saundhers, above all I ever seen." "Do you think I'd go cut down a woman, Tom? No, if she was to give me a gash a foot deep. It's mortial sthrong, sure enough, by the great Sazor." R "Famous stuff of a dark night," answered Tom, stretching his hand for the bottle. It was indeed his turn: Saunders, however, cheated him of a gulp, ere he would relinquish it. "Au-hau!—a dhrowsy thing to be stayin' awake all nigh, long," digressed Tom; "I wish ould Nick had all the Croppies is Waxford, that keeps us out of our beds, in this sort,-au-hau !" Yawning, as is well known, is epidemic; the hideous extension of Tom's jaws was followed by that of Saunders Smyly's. “Hau-u! I didn't sleep what may be called a wink these three weeks, good," said Saunders. "I'd give a shillin' for a good snore," added Tom, in wavering accents. Almost instantly he had his wish gratis. I'd sleep for a month, I think-by-the-left-thigh" and Saunders slipped down beside his comrade. A few incoherent words, which died away in vague sound, and they were both enjoying the blessing they had so recently and loudly lauded. The woman had awaited the effect of her potion. Now she arose, and, stepping lightly to the watchful guardians of the castle, soon disencumbered Saunders of his keys, and hastened to despatch the business, for the execution of which she had, as we have seen, ingeniously introduced herself into the temporary prison. 'Sir William Judkin, dragged from the arms of his lovely Bride, at the very first moment he could call her his own, felt less at his individual disappointment, and at the prospect of facing a courtmartial, than he did at the recollection of his mistress and wife left alone to abide the machinations of an abhorred rival. Charges of disloyalty, whatever might be his real sentiments toward King and Government, could not, he knew, possibly be made good against him. Confident of an acquittal, and maddened by his feelings, the young Baronet loudly demanded the trial that must leave him free to rush to his unprotected bride. But it was not deemed expedient yet to meet his wishes. The only consequence of his continued clamour was that he was removed from the large apartment, in which, with many other suspected persons, he had first been locked up, to a small round chamber in the eastern turret of the castle, and there left to his own reflections. The two towers, to the right and to the left of the old edifice, gave admission, by winding stairs, into the main pile. From the main pile in turn was entrance gained to three apartments in the lesser tower, one situated above the other. And the ground apartment of these three, having a floor of mason-work, a small and strong door unplastered walls, and one or two slits in lieu of |