nto the passage, and made the van resound with
their wailings. In the midst of the tumult a face appeared at the
grating, and Brett heard himself summoned to give up the keys. The
assailants had discovered where they were kept, and resolved on
obtaining them as the speediest way of effecting their purpose. "Give
up the keys, or they will shoot you," exclaimed the women; but Brett
refused. The next instant he fell heavily backwards, with the hot
blood welling from a bullet-wound in the head. A shot fired into the
key-hole, for the purpose of blowing the lock to pieces, had taken
effect in his temple. The terror-stricken women lifted him up,
screaming "he's killed." As they did so, the voice which had been
heard before called out to them through the ventilator to give up the
keys. One of the women then took them from the pocket of the dying
policeman, and handed them out through the trap. The door was at once
unlocked, the terrified women rushed out, and Brett, weltering in
blood, rolled out heavily upon the road. Then a pale-faced young man,
wearing a light overcoat, a blue tie, and a tall brown hat, who had
been noticed taking a prominent part in the affray, entered the van,
and unlocked the compartments in which Kelly and Deasey were confined.
A hasty greeting passed between them, and then the trio hurriedly
joined the band outside. "I told you, Kelly, I would die before I
parted with you," cried the young man who had unlocked the doors;
then, seizing Kelly by the arm, he helped him across the road, and
over the wall, into the brick-fields beyond. Here he was taken charge
of by others of the party, who hurried with him across the country,
while a similar office was performed for Deasey, who, like Colonel
Kelly, found himself hampered to some extent by the handcuffs on his
wrists. The main body of those who had shared in the assault occupied
themselves with preventing the fugitives from being pursued; and not
until Kelly, Deasy, and their conductors had passed far out of sight,
did they think of consulting their own safety. At length, when further
resistance to the mob seemed useless and impossible, they broke and
fled, some of them occasionally checking the pursuit by turning round
and presenting pistols at those who followed. Many of the fugitives
escaped, but several others were surrounded and overtaken by the mob.
And now the "chivalry" of the English nature came out in its real
colours. No sooner did the cowardly se