, with folio volumes, brought hastily from the library, leaving
only spaces through which the defenders might fire upon the assailants.

'My father had now made his dispositions, and we sat in breathless
expectation in the darkened apartment, the men remaining all silent upon
their posts, in anxious contemplation probably of the approaching danger.
My father, who was quite at home in such a scene, walked from one to
another and reiterated his orders that no one should presume to fire
until he gave the word. Hazlewood, who seemed to catch courage from his
eye, acted as his aid-de-camp, and displayed the utmost alertness in
bearing his directions from one place to another, and seeing them
properly carried into execution. Our force, with the strangers included,
might amount to about twelve men.

'At length the silence of this awful period of expectation was broken by
a sound which at a distance was like the rushing of a stream of water,
but as it approached we distinguished the thick-beating clang of a number
of horses advancing very fast. I had arranged a loophole for myself, from
which I could see the approach of the enemy. The noise increased and came
nearer, and at length thirty horsemen and more rushed at once upon the
lawn. You never saw such horrid wretches! Notwithstanding the severity of
the season, they were most of them stripped to their shirts and trowsers,
with silk handkerchiefs knotted about their heads, and all well armed
with carbines, pistols, and cutlasses. I, who am a soldier's daughter,
and accustomed to see war from my infancy, was never so terrified in my
life as by the savage appearance of these ruffians, their horses reeking
with the speed at which they had ridden, and their furious exclamations
of rage and disappointment when they saw themselves baulked of their
prey. They paused, however, when they saw the preparations made to
receive them, and appeared to hold a moment's consultation among
themselves. At length one of the party, his face blackened with gunpowder
by way of disguise, came forward with a white handkerchief on the end of
his carbine, and asked to speak with Colonel Mannering. My father, to my
infinite terror, threw open a window near which he was posted, and
demanded what he wanted. "We want our goods, which we have been robbed of
by these sharks," said the fellow; "and our lieutenant bids me say that,
if they are delivered, we'll go off for this bout without clearing scores
with th