n the place.'

"'No,' said others, spaking out when they heard any body at all having
courage to do so--'it's too bad, boys, to burn the place; for if we do,'
says they, 'some of the innocent may be burned before they get from the
house, or even before they waken out of their sleep.'

"'Knock at the door first,' says Slevin, 'and bring Vengeance out; let
us cut the ears off of his head and lave him.'

"'Damn him!' says another, 'let us not take the vagabone's life; it's
enough to take the ears from him, and to give him a prod or two of a
bagnet on the ribs; but don't kill him.'

"'Well, well,' says Reilly, 'let us knock at the door, and get himself
and the family out,' says he, 'and then we'll see what can be done wid
him.'

"'Tattheration to me,' says the big Longford fellow, 'if he had sarved
me, Reilly, as he did you, but I'd roast him in the flames of his own
house,' says he.

"'I'd have you to know,' says Slevin, 'that you have no command here,
Collier. I'm captain at the present time,' says he; 'and more nor what
I wish shall not be done. Go over,' says he to the blackfaces, 'and rap
him up.'

"Accordingly they began to knock at the door, commanding Vengeance to
get up and come out to them.

"'Come, Vengeance,' says Collier, 'put on you, my good fellow, and come
out till two or three of your neighbors, that wish you well, gets a
sight of your purty face, you babe of grace!'

"'Who are you that wants me at all?' says Vengeance from within.

"'Come out, first,' says Collier; 'a few friends that has a crow to
pluck with you; walk out, avourneen; or if you'd rather be roasted
alive, why you may stay where you are,' says he.

"'Gentlemen,' says Vengeance, 'I have never, to my knowledge, offended
any of you; and I hope you won't be so cruel as to take an industrious,
hard-working man from his family, in the clouds of the night, to do him
an injury. Go home, gentlemen, in the name of God, and let me and mine
alone. You're all mighty dacent gentlemen, you know, and I'm determined
never to make or meddle with any of you. Sure, I know right well it's
purtecting me you would be, dacent gentlemen. But I don't think
there's any of my neighbors there, or they wouldn't stand by and see me
injured.'

"'Thrue for you, avick,' says they giving, at the same time; a terrible
patterrara agin the door, with two or three big stones.

"'Stop, stop!' says Vengeance, 'don't break the door, and I'll open it.
I know you're m