th the
Richards' party, and chased the thoroughly demoralized Rawdonites, whose
guns and pouches strewed the ground, to a desolate rocky spot beside a
swamp, where felled trees lay in indescribable confusion, over which the
fugitives scrambled in desperate haste for home. The lawyer caught sight
of a figure that he knew, far up the rocky slope, preparing to leap down
from a prostrate trunk resting on three or four others, and aimed his
rifle at it. The Squire threw up the weapon just in the nick of time.
"It's ower gude a death for the likes o' him, Coristine. Gie him time to
repent, an' let the law tak' its coarse. The cunning scoundrel! Even at
the risk o' 's life he wadna let us ken whaur his waggon road is, but
I've a thocht, man, that it's yonner whaur the rock rises oot o' the
swamp." Then the good Squire took off his hat, and thanked God for the
defeat of the evil doers.

Light though the night was, to continue the pursuit would have been the
height of folly. The force was mustered and inspected by the so-called
Colonel Carruthers, and the Sergeant-Major Terry. Including themselves,
it was found to consist of no fewer than seventeen persons, one of whom
was a woman, and the other a lad of about fifteen years of age, Matilda
Nagle and her boy Monty. "I will show you where the road is," she said
to the Squire; "it is hard to find, but I know it. When Stevy tried to
find it, Harding and he put him to sleep, so that I couldn't wake him
up. Harding is asleep now too; I put him, and Monty helped, didn't you,
Monty?"

Carruthers looked, and saw that the woman's right hand and that of the
idiot boy were alike stained with blood. All his own men were safe and
sound, not a scratch on any one of them. The veteran's rapid tactics had
given the enemy hardly an opportunity to return the fire, and had
destroyed their aim from the very beginning. All honour to the
sergeant-major! All had behaved well. Father Hill and his friend Hislop
felt like boys; and while the Sesayder took a fatherly interest in
Rufus, the parent of Tryphena and Tryphosa was pleased with the bearing
of the Pilgrims. Ben Toner's conscience was a little troubled about his
treatment of old man Newcome, but he also had a feeling that he was
getting nearer to Serlizer. The veteran and Mr. Perrowne were filled
with mutual admiration; and Coristine felt that that night's work had
brought to his suit, as an ordinary year's acquaintance could not have
done, the vo