nd bent over Neal.

"By God," he said, "it's Neal, and he's hurt or killed."

"It's all right," said Neal, feebly, "I'm only dizzy. I got a bang on
the head. I'll be all right in a minute."

"Matier," said Donald, "come and help me with the boy. I must get him to
bed. Where can I put him?"

"There's not a room in the house with a whole pane of glass in the
window," said Felix Matier, "except my own. It looks out on the back,
and the villains never came at it. We'll take him there. I'll lift his
shoulders, and go first."

He approached Neal and was about to lift him when the girl pushed him
aside and stooped over Neal herself.

"Come now, what's the meaning of this, Peg Macllrea? Are you so daft
with your fighting that you hustle your master aside?"

"Master or no master," said Peg, "you'll not carry him. It was for me
that he got hurted, and it's me that'll carry him."

She put her arms under Neal and lifted him. He was a big man, but she
carried him up a flight of stairs and laid him on her master's bed.
The long matted tresses of her red hair hung over his face, and an
occasional drop of the blood which still dripped from her fell on him.
Donald Ward and Matier followed her.

"Let's have a look at him," said Donald. "Ah! here's a scalp wound and a
cut on the head the length of my finger. This must be seen to. Run, Peg,
get me linen and a basin of cold water. It must have been a boot did
this. A kick from one of the rascally dragoons as they passed over him
when we chased them. Now, Neal, are you hurt anywhere else?"

"I'm bruises from head to foot. Half the people in Belfast have trampled
over me this night, and when they wear boots they wear mighty heavy
ones."

Donald, with wonderful gentleness, took Neal' clothes off him, put on
him a night shirt of Felix Matier's, and laid him between cool sheets.

"Sit you here, Peg," he said, when he had bandaged the cut head, "with
the jug of water beside you, and keep the bandage wet. The other bruises
are nothing, but a broken head needs to be minded. Now, Neal, don't you
talk."

Matier fetched a bottle of wine and set it with the light on the table
which stood near the window.

"We'll have to sit here," he said, "if we don't disturb your nephew.
Every other room in the house is in a state of scatteration. I have set
the girls to clean up a bit, and after a while they'll have beds for us
to sleep in. It's a devil of a business, but as poor Tone used to say
w