dar on the top, struggling with a man. It was too
dark to discern which was which; but a moment later, one of the two
staggered a step backwards to the edge. There was a yell, a shower of
loose earth; then, as I stood below clinging to the rock, a dark mass
fell betwixt me and the sky, brushing me as it passed, and bounding from
the ledge below with a hideous crash out into the deepness.

I stood there an instant as cold and pulse-less as the stone against
which I leaned. What if this were Ludar who had fallen?

A voice from above restored me to life.

"Quick there, come up, and the place is ours!"

In a moment I stood beside him on the narrow edge of grass between the
castle wall and the brink. We could hear the shouts and firing away at
the gate, but not a soul was left here to bar our passage. Even the
sentinel's shot had passed unheeded. There was a low window leading to
one of the offices of the castle, through which we clambered. Next
moment we found ourselves standing within the walls of Dunluce.

"_Froach Eilan_!" shouted Ludar, drawing his dirk and waving on his men.

"_Froach Eilan! Ludar_!" shouted we, some of us discharging our pieces
to add to the uproar, while one man exploded a swivel gun which stood on
the seaward battlement.

The effect was magical. There was a sudden pause in the fighting at the
bridge. Then rose a mighty answering cry from our McDonnells outside;
while the garrison, caught thus between the two fires, looked this way
and that, not knowing against which foe to turn.

Though we were but thirteen--nay, only twelve, for the English sentinel
in his fall had swept yet another of our brave fellows from the ledge--
it was hard for any one to say in the darkness how many we were or how
many were yet behind; and the thirty defenders to the place, when once
the panic had spread, were in no mood for waiting to see. Many of them
laid down their arms at once. Some, still more terrified, attempted to
descend the rocks, and so perished; others plunged boldly into the gulf,
and there was an end of them.

Ludar meanwhile rushed to the bridge. Many a brave fellow to-night had
met his fate on that narrow way. For so far, no assault from our men
without had been able to shake the strong portcullis, or make an opening
on the grim face of the fortress. Indeed, it seemed to me, a single
child in the place might have defied an army, so unassailable did it
appear. Our men had carried ea