first discharge will
scatter like chaff before the whirlwind?"

"Nay," answered the speaker, who was the same individual that had struck
Julian by his resemblance to the man who called himself Ganlesse, "I
love a dire revenge, but we shall buy it somewhat too dear if these
rascals set the house on fire, as they are like to do, while you are
parleying from the window. They have thrown torches or firebrands
into the hall; and it is all our friends can do to keep the flame from
catching the wainscoting, which is old and dry."

"Now, may Heaven judge thee for thy lightness of spirit," answered
Bridgenorth; "one would think mischief was so properly thy element, that
to thee it was indifferent whether friend or foe was the sufferer."

So saying, he ran hastily downstairs towards the hall, into which,
through broken casements, and betwixt the iron bars, which prevented
human entrance, the assailants had thrust lighted straw, sufficient to
excite much smoke and some fire, and to throw the defenders of the house
into great confusion; insomuch, that of several shots fired hastily from
the windows, little or no damage followed to the besiegers, who, getting
warm on the onset, answered the hostile charges with loud shouts of
"Peveril for ever!" and had already made a practicable breach through
the brick-wall of the tenement, through which Lance, Ditchley, and
several of the most adventurous among their followers, made their way
into the hall.

The complete capture of the house remained, however, as far off as ever.
The defenders mixed with much coolness and skill that solemn and deep
spirit of enthusiasm which sets life at less than nothing, in comparison
to real or supposed duty. From the half-open doors which led into the
hall, they maintained a fire which began to grow fatal. One miner was
shot dead; three or four were wounded; and Lance scarce knew whether
he should draw his forces from the house, and leave it a prey to the
flames, or, making a desperate attack on the posts occupied by the
defenders, try to obtain unmolested possession of the place. At
this moment, his course of conduct was determined by an unexpected
occurrence, of which it is necessary to trace the cause.

Julian Peveril had been, like other inhabitants of Moultrassie Hall on
that momentous night, awakened by the report of the sentinel's musket,
followed by the shouts of his father's vassals and followers; of which
he collected enough to guess that Bridg