ns, they followed him and his guide to that part of Dublin known
as the "Liberties," inhabited by the dregs of the population. The night
was dark; no lamps illumined that part of the town. The lantern carried
by Larry Flynn, the coxswain, enabled the party to thread their way
through several narrow streets till they reached a house, at the door of
which he stopped.

"This is it, yer honour," said Larry; "but we must be mighty quick, or
they'll be after escaping along the tiles."

On this he gave a gentle knock at the door. "Hist! Mother O'Flanigan,
open the door, or I'll be taken hold of by the watchmen," he whispered
through the keyhole, as he heard a step within.

"Who is it?" asked the voice.

"Shure, it's Dennis Donovan, whom ye'll be after knowing, I'm thinking;
but quick, quick, mother dear, or it'll be too late and I'll be caught."

As he spoke the bars were withdrawn, and the lock turned, and the old
woman, forgetting her usual caution, slowly opened the door. On this
Larry sprang in, and before she had time to shriek out thrust a woollen
comforter into her mouth.

"Hold her fast, Bill!" he exclaimed to one of the men who had been
directed to guard the door, while the lieutenant and Gerald, with the
rest, rushed along a narrow passage, at the end of which another female,
a stout, sturdy-looking Amazon, appeared with a light in one hand and a
poker in the other.

"Who are ye, ye brutes?" she exclaimed, "coming to disturb a dacent
household at this time of night? Shure, the childher are in bed, and
ye'll be waking them up and sending them into fits, the darlints."

"It's joking ye are, Misthress Milligan, for divil a child have ye got
in the house, barring a score of bhoys with big whiskers on their
faces," answered Larry; "so just keep a dacent tongue in your mouth, and
be quiet with that poker."

Mrs Milligan, finding that she was known, and as it would be useless to
deny that she had guests in the house, shrieked out at the top of her
voice, "Run, bhoys, run--the pressgang are on ye!" at the same time
attempting, with her formidable weapon, to prevent the seamen from
opening the door before which she stood. Larry, however, dashing
forward, wrenched it from her hand, and giving her a shove which sent
her reeling into the arms of those behind him, burst open the door with
his cudgel; and, the harridan having been handed along to those in the
rear, the rest of the men followed him into the room.