is screams were the most piercing
and terrific.

Although all my compassion was changed into contempt, I felt that I
could never have given the word to fire upon him, had such been my
orders; his fears had placed him below all manhood, but they still
formed a barrier of defence around him. I accordingly whispered a few
words to the sergeant, as we passed down the stairs, and then, affecting
to have forgotten something, I stepped back towards the room, where the
general and his staff were sitting. The scuffling sound of feet, mingled
with the crash of firearms, almost drowned the cries of the still
struggling wretch; his voice, however, burst forth into a wild cry, and
then there came a pause--a pause that at last became insupportable to my
anxiety, and I was about to rush downstairs, when a loud yell, a savage
howl of derision and hate burst forth from the street; and on looking
out I saw a vast crowd before the door, who were shouting after a man,
whose speed soon carried him out of reach. This was Dowall, who, thus
suffered to escape, was told to fly from the town and never to return to
it.

'Thank Heaven,' muttered I, 'we've seen the last of him.'

The rejoicing was, however, premature.

CHAPTER XXIV. THE MISSION TO THE NORTH

I have never yet been able to discover whether General Humbert really
did feel the confidence that he assumed at this period, or that he
merely affected it, the better to sustain the spirits of those around
him. If our success at Castlebar was undeniable, our loss was also
great, and far more than proportionate to all the advantages we had
acquired. Six officers and two hundred and forty men were either
killed or badly wounded, and as our small force had really acquired no
reinforcement worth the name, it was evident that another such costly
victory would be our ruin.

Not one gentleman of rank or influence had yet joined us; few of the
priesthood; and, even among the farmers and peasantry, it was easy to
see that our recruits comprised those whose accession could never have
conferred honour or profit on any cause.

Our situation was anything but promising. The rumours that reached us
(and we had no other or more accurate information than rumours)
told that an army of thirty thousand men, under the command of Lord
Cornwallis, was in march against us; that all the insurrectionary
movements of the south were completely repressed; that the spirit of
the Irish was crushed, and their