age fellows whom you have incorporated among you--why do they lounge
about idly, with arms in their hands, and faces that still seem bent on
mischief?"

"Because, 'squire, it's impossible to do otherwise. We can't go to work,
for the life of us, if we wished to; we all feel that we have gone too
far, and those, whose own consciences do not trouble them, are yet too
much troubled by fear of the consequences to be in any hurry to take up
handspike or hammer again in this quarter of the world."

The too guilty man had indeed spoken his own and the condition of the
people among whom he lived. They could now see and feel the fruits of
that rash error which had led them on; but their consciousness came too
late for retrieval, and they now wondered, with a simplicity truly
surprising to those who know with what facility an uneducated and warm
people may be led to their own ruin, that this consciousness had not
come to them before. Ralph, attended by Forrester, advanced among the
crowd. As he did so, all eyes were turned upon him, and a sullen
conference took place, having reference to himself, between Munro and a
few of the ringleaders. This conference was brief, and as soon as it was
concluded, the landlord turned to the youth, and spoke as follows:--

"You were a witness, Mr. Colleton, of this whole transaction, and can
say whether the soldiers were not guilty of the most unprovoked assault
upon us, without reason or right."

"I can say no such thing, sir," was his reply. "On the contrary, I am
compelled to say, that a more horrible and unjustifiable transaction I
never witnessed. I must say that they were not the aggressors."

"How unjustifiable young sir?" quickly and sternly retorted the landlord
"Did you not behold us ridden down by the soldiery? did they not attack
us in our trenches--in our castle as it were? and have we not a right to
defend our castle from assailants? They took the adventure at their
peril, and suffered accordingly."

"I know not what your title may be to the grounds you have defended so
successfully, and which you have styled your castle, nor shall I stop to
inquire. I do not believe that your right either gave you possession or
authorized your defence in this cruel manner. The matter, however, is
between you and your country. My own impressions are decidedly against
you; and were I called upon for an opinion as to your mode of asserting
your pretended right, I should describe it as brutal and