stily.'

'Nephew, nephew,' said Captain Oliver, 'you mistake the tenor of our
orders. We were directed to conciliate the peasantry by fair and gentle
treatment, but not to suffer spies and traitors to escape. This packet
is of some value, though not, in all its parts, intelligible to me. The
bearer has made his way hither under a disguise, which, along with the
other circumstances of his appearance here, is sufficient to convict him
as a spy.'

There was a pause here, and after a few minutes the younger officer
said:

'Spy is a hard term, no doubt, uncle; but it is possible--nay, likely,
that this poor devil sought merely to carry the parcel with which he was
charged in safety to its destination. Pshaw! he is sufficiently punished
if you duck him, for ten minutes or so, between the bridge and the
mill-dam.'

'Young man,' said Oliver, somewhat sternly, 'do not obtrude your advice
where it is not called for; this man, for whom you plead, murdered your
own father!'

I could not see how this announcement affected the person to whom it was
addressed, for his back was towards me; but I conjectured, easily, that
my last poor chance was gone, for a long silence ensued. Captain Oliver
at length resumed:

'I know the villain well. I know him capable of any crime; but, by ----,
his last card is played, and the game is up. He shall not see the moon
rise to-night.'

There was here another pause.

Oliver rose, and going to the outer door, called:

'Hewson! Hewson!'

A grim-looking corporal entered.

'Hewson, have your guard ready at eight o'clock, with their carbines
clean, and a round of ball-cartridge each. Keep them sober; and,
further, plant two upright posts at the near end of the bridge, with
a cross one at top, in the manner of a gibbet. See to these matters,
Hewson: I shall be with you speedily.'

The corporal made his salutations, and retired.

Oliver deliberately folded up the papers with which I had been
commissioned, and placing them in the pocket of his vest, he said:

'Cunning, cunning Master Hardress Fitzgerald hath made a false step;
the old fox is in the toils. Hardress Fitzgerald, Hardress Fitzgerald, I
will blot you out.'

He repeated these words several times, at the same time rubbing his
finger strongly upon the table, as if he sought to erase a stain:

'I WILL BLOT YOU OUT!'

There was a kind of glee in his manner and expression which chilled my
very heart.

'You shall be first shot lik