the house is chock full of
soldiers. We are only waiting for orders to blow you to smithereens."

Walter burst into a laugh.

"Very well done, Larry. It is I, with some soldiers. So you needn't give
orders to the men to fire."

Larry gave a cry of satisfaction, and ran down to open the door.

"It's glad I am to see you, Master Walter, entirely. I have been
listening ever since you went, and, when I heard the tramp of feet, I
made sure it was the boys."

"But I gave orders that there was to be no resistance, Larry."

"And I wasn't going to resist, your honour; but I thought I might just
frighten them away."

"Now, Larry, get up a pint of wine for each of these good fellows, and
what victuals you can find in the house. We need have no fear of an
attack tonight."

When the soldiers had finished their supper, they lay down in the hall.
Walter placed a sentry at a window, at each side of the house, and he
then lay down on a sofa, for the ride to Limerick and back had greatly
fatigued him, much to his surprise, for he had no idea how far his
strength had been pulled down.

He was aroused, just as day was breaking, by a loud knocking at the door,
and at the same moment a shot was fired from a window above. The soldiers
had started to their feet, and seized their arms as he ran out and bade
them follow him upstairs. He threw up a window.

"Who are you? And what do you want?"

"Never mind who we are," a voice replied. "We want the door opened, and
you had best do it quick."

"Look here, my man," Walter said in a loud, steady voice, "there are
thirty soldiers in this house, and, if I give the word, you will get such
a volley among you, that half of you will never go home to tell about it,
so I warn you to depart quietly."

"It's a lie," the man said. "If you are the officer, you have got only
four men, and you know it. We want to do you no harm, and we don't want
to harm the ladies; but what's in the house is ours--that's the law of
William's troops, and we mean to act up to it."

A chorus of approbation rose from a throng of peasants gathered round the
door. A few of them carried muskets, but the greater part were armed with
rude pikes.

"Show yourselves at the windows, boys," Walter said to his men. "Level
your muskets, but don't fire until I give the word."

It was light enough for those without to make out the threatening
figures, which showed themselves at every window, and, with a cry of
alarm, they ra