n fired.

"Hurra!" shouted the mob--"hurra!" and they danced like maniacs round
the fire; looking, in fact, like so many wild Indians, dancing round
their roasting victims, or some demons at an infernal feast.

The torch had been put to twenty different places, and the flames united
into one, and suddenly shot up with a velocity, and roared with a sound
that caused many who were present to make a precipitate retreat from the
hall.

This soon became a necessary measure of self-preservation, and it
required no urging to induce them to quit a place that was burning
rapidly and even furiously.

"Get the poles and firewood--get faggots," shouted some of the mob, and,
lo, it was done almost by magic. They brought the faggots and wood piled
up for winter use, and laid them near all the doors, and especially the
main entrance. Nay, every gate or door belonging to the outhouses was
brought forward and placed upon the fire, which now began to reach the
upper stories.

"Hurra--fire! Hurra--fire!"

And a loud shout of triumph came from the mob as they viewed the
progress of the flames, as they came roaring and tearing through the
house doors and the windows.

Each new victory of the element was a signal to the mob for a cheer; and
a hearty cheer, too, came from them.

"Where is the vampyre now?" exclaimed one.

"Ha! where is he?" said another.

"If he be there," said the man, pointing to the flames, "I reckon he's
got a warm berth of it, and, at the same time, very little water to boil
in his kettle."

"Ha, ha! what a funny old man is Bob Mason; he's always poking fun; he'd
joke if his wife were dying."

"There is many a true word spoken in jest," suggested another; "and, to
my mind, Bob Mason wouldn't be very much grieved if his wife were to
die."

"Die?" said Bob; "she and I have lived and quarrelled daily a matter of
five-and-thirty years, and, if that ain't enough to make a man sick of
being married, and of his wife, hand me, that's all. I say I am tired."

This was said with much apparent sincerity, and several laughed at the
old man's heartiness.

"It's all very well," said the old man; "it's all very well to laugh
about matters you don't understand, but I know it isn't a joke--not a
bit on it. I tells you what it is, neighbour, I never made but one grand
mistake in all my life."

"And what was that?"

"To tie myself to a woman."

"Why, you'd get married to-morrow if your wife were to die to-day," sai