underbuss at their leader, who was on the point of
making his way to the hall-door, when the ruffian fell stone-dead, and
almost simultaneously, he and his son John were literally perforated
with a shower of bullets.

"We must die, also," exclaimed Alick to his mother and his sisters; "we
must die,--but let us die firmly. Any death, however, is better than one
of fire; here we cannot stay longer. Stoop now, so that we may pass that
part of the wall that is beneath the windows, until we reach the lower
floor; if we expose ourselves only for a moment, we must share their
fate. Great God! what a fate and what a night!"

By following his advice, they reached the lower floor in safety, and had
scarcely done so, when the burning roof crashed in upon the bodies of
the proctor and his son, of whose remains nothing but a few cinders were
found the next morning. The falling in of the roof was accompanied by a
considerable explosion, owing to the powder which they had left behind
them, and the noise of which caused the crowd that was now hemming in
the house to pause for a moment, but only for a moment; for they knew
now by the explosion, that the ammunition of their enemies was gone,
and that "the old fox and his cubs," as they called them, were probably
incapable of further resistance; a reflection which, as it stood not in
the way of their cowardice, seemed to increase their fury.

"Revenge now, boys," shouted a hundred voices; "they have shot our
leader along with the rest. Come on then, sledge in the doors an'
windies, an' if we lave a single inch of the villains together, may
we be hanged like dogs! Come on, then, they are helpless now; their
ammunition's gone, an' they can do us no harm. Blood for blood as far as
they go; it's into inches we must hew them--into inches--come on, then!"

A furious assault instantly commenced at the doors and windows. It was,
indeed, a frightful thing to see these men, with their white shirts and
black visages, fiercely at work; panting and inflamed with ungovernable
rage and vengeance, the red turbid blaze of the burning building
lighting them into the similitude of incarnate devils, let loose upon
some hellish mission of destruction and blood. Their own fury, however,
impeded their progress, for as they passed onwards to the door, urged by
the worst passions of man, it was found that their violence, thus broken
and diminished by the struggle, had prevented them from making anything
like a