with all my soul the wood-work of the sail, and that moment was
swimming in the air."

Giles. "WELL DONE! WELL DONE!"

"Motion I felt little; but the stars seemed to go round the sky, and then
the grass came up to me nearer and nearer, and when the hoary grass was
quite close I was sent rolling along it as if hurled from a catapult,
and got up breathless, and every point and tie about me broken. I rose,
but fell down again in agony. I had but one leg I could stand on."

Catherine. "Eh! dear! his leg is broke, my boy's leg is broke."

"And e'en as I lay groaning, I heard a sound like thunder. It was the
assassins running up the stairs. The crazy old mill shook under them.
They must have found that I had not fallen into their bloody trap, and
were running to despatch me. Margaret, I felt no fear, for I had now
no hope. I could neither run nor hide; so wild the place, so bright the
moon. I struggled up all agony and revenge, more like some wounded wild
beast than your Gerard. Leaning on my sword hilt I hobbled round; and
swift as lighting, or vengeance, I heaped a great pile of their hay
and wood at the mill door; then drove my dagger into a barrel of their
smuggled spirits, and flung it on; then out with my tinder and lighted
the pile. 'This will bring true men round my dead body,' said I.
'Aha!' I cried, 'think you I'll die alone, cowards, assassins! reckless
fiends!' and at each word on went a barrel pierced. But oh, Margaret!
the fire fed by the spirits surprised me: it shot up and singed my
very hair, it went roaring up the side of the mill, swift as falls
the lightning; and I yelled and laughed in my torture and despair, and
pierced more barrels and the very tar-barrels, and flung them on. The
fire roared like a lion for its prey, and voices answered it inside from
the top of the mill, and the feet came thundering down, and I stood
as near that awful fire as I could, with uplifted sword to slay and
be slain. The bolt was drawn. A tar-barrel caught fire. The door was
opened. What followed? Not the men came out, but the fire rushed in
at them like a living death, and the first I thought to fight with was
blackened and crumpled on the floor like a leaf. One fearsome yell, and
dumb for ever. The feet ran up again, but fewer. I heard them hack with
their swords a little way up at the mill's wooden sides; but they had
no time to hew their way out: the fire and reek were at their heels, and
the smoke burst out at every l