to the spot where Mrs. Purcel and her daughter stood--for
she and Mary had now joined Julia--was about to speak to them, when the
report of a pistol was heard, and at the same moment a bullet whizzed
past his ear.

"Treachery!" he shouted, "treachery against your commander! Seize upon
that person, in the name of Captain Right."

His words came late; another report followed the first, with an interval
of less than a quarter of a minute between them, and instantly our pious
friend, who had flattered himself with the prospect of a long and happy
life in the possession of Julia Purcel, fell stone-dead to the earth.

"What!" shouted the Cannie, "is this more treachery? But wait, I'll soon
cure this."

He put a horn to his lips as he spoke, and having given it a sharp,
quick, and hasty blast, he nodded his head, as much as to say, "Wait a
moment."

"The last shot wasn't threachery anyhow," exclaimed Jerry Joyce,
whose voice Alick immediately recognized; "somebody," he added, with a
significant look, "has ped honest Mogue for his."

"Is he dead?" asked the Cannie.

"He is dead, captain," replied several, "and so may every one die that's
a traitor to the Cannie Soogah--our bold Captain Right.'"

A body of about a thousand men now made their appearance, every one of
them personally devoted to the Cannie Soogah; and brought there for the
humane purpose, if possible, of saving Purcel and his sons that night.

"It was a false alarm, my friends," said he, as they came up; "there was
only one traitor among them, and he has been brought to his account. I
didn't wish for his death, and he might have got some other punishment,
but it can't be helped now; I'm only sorry for the false-hearted
vagabond because he wasn't fit to die."

He then, after a few words of advice, dismissed them to their respective
homes, with the exception of a certain number of faithful followers,
whom he retained for the purpose of assisting him to escort Mrs. Purcel
and her daughters to the house of our worthy magistrate. Another body he
also appointed to the task of carrying the dead and wounded away to some
remote place, where they could be interred, or so concealed that their
indentification might not involve their surviving relatives.

[Illustration: Destruction of the Castle]

Our narrative, we may say, is closed. The Cannie now having placed Mrs.
Purcel and her daughters on horseback, directed his friends to proceed
to the residence of the r