wood kernes" of Spenser's day. A tory-hunt at that time,
or at any time, was a pastime of no common, danger. Those ferocious
and determined banditti had little to render life desirable. They
consequently set but a slight value upon it. The result was that the
pursuits after them by foreign soldiers, and other persons but slightly
acquainted with the country, generally ended in disaster and death to
several of the pursuers.

On the morning in question the tory-hunters literally beat the woods
as if they had been in the pursuit of game, but for a considerable time
with little effect. Not the appearance of a single tory was anywhere
visible; but, notwithstanding this, it so happened that some one of
their enemies occasionally dropped, either dead or wounded, by a shot
from the intricacies and covers of the woods, which, upon being
searched and examined, afforded no trace whatsoever of those who did
the mischief. This was harassing and provocative of vengeance to the
military and such wretched police as existed in that day. No search
could discover a single trace of a tory, and many of those in the
pursuit were obliged to withdraw from it--not unreluctantly, indeed, in
order to bear back the dead and wounded to the town of Rathfillan.

As they were entering an open space that lay between two wooded
enclosures, a white hare started across their path, to the utter
consternation of those who were in pursuit. Woodward, now disguised and
in his mask, had been for a considerable time looking behind him, but
this circumstance did not escape his notice, and he felt, to say
the least of it, startled at her second appearance. It reminded him,
however, of the precautions which he had taken; and he looked back from
time to time, as we have said, in expectation of something appertaining
to the pursuit. At length he exclaimed,

"Where are the party with the blood-hounds? Why have they not joined us
and come up with us?

"They have started a wolf," replied one of them, "and the dogs are after
him; and some of them have gone back upon the trail of the wounded men."

"Return for them," said he; "without their assistance we can never
find the trail of these accursed tories; but, above all, of
Shawn-na-Middoque."

In due time the dogs were brought up, but the trails were so various
that they separated mostly into single hunts, and went at such a rapid
speed that they were lost in the woods.

At length two of them who came up first, ga