is sword bare and his eyes blazing. That
momentary panic saved Clontarf. In a second Ralph had thrown him under
the arch of a deep doorway, and placed himself between the senseless
body and its assailants. Two or three shots were fired at him without
effect; it was difficult to take aim in such a tossing chaos; then one
man, Delaney, sprung out at him with a clubbed musket. "At last!" we
heard Mohun say, laughing low and savagely in his beard as he stepped
one pace forward to meet his enemy. A blow that looked as if it might
have felled Behemoth was warded dexterously by the sabre, and, by a
quick turn of the wrist, its edge laid the Rapparee's face open in a
bright scarlet gash, extending from eyebrow to chin.

His comrades rushed over his body, furious, though somewhat disheartened
at seeing their champion come to grief; but they had to deal with a
blade that had kept half a dozen Hungarian swordsmen at bay, and, with
point or edge, it met them every where, magically. They were drawing
back, when Delaney, recovering from the first effects of his fearful
wound, crawled forward, gasping out curses that seemed floating on the
torrent of his rushing blood, and tried to grasp Mohun by the knees and
drag him down.

Pah! it was a sight to haunt one's dreams. (You might have filled my
glass, some of you, when you saw it was empty.)

Ralph looked down on him, and laughed again; his sabre whirled round
once, and cleared a wide circle; then, trampling down the wounded man by
main force, he drove the point through his throat, and pinned him to the
floor. I tell you I heard the steel plainly as it grated on the stone.
There was an awful convulsion of all the limbs, and then the huge mass
lay quite still.

Then came a lull for several moments. The Irish cowered back to the door
like penned sheep; their ammunition was exhausted, and none dared to
cross the hideous barrier that now was between them and the terrible
Cuirassier.

All this took about half the time to act that it does to tell. I was
hesitating whether to descend or to stay where my duty called me--near
my wife. Fritz knelt behind me, silent and motionless; he had got his
orders to stay by me to the last; but the sturdy keeper rose to his
feet.

"Faix," he said, "I'm but a poor hand at the swoording, but I must help
my master, anyhow;" and he began to climb over the breastwork. The
colonel's quick glance caught the movement, and his brief imperious
tones rang over