, and powder-charges,
loose in a jacket pocket; and I thrust them into one of his, upon a
sudden impulse, not (as I think) altogether unaccountable, albeit (as I
have said) so indefensible.

My back was hardly turned an instant. I had left a statue of unforgiving
coldness. I started round to catch in my arms a half-fainting,
grief-stricken form, shaken with sobs that it broke my heart to hear. I
placed her on the camp-stool. I knelt down and comforted her as well as
I could, stroking her hands, my arm about her heaving shoulders, with
the gold-brown hair streaming over them. Such hair as it was! So much
longer than I had dreamt. So soft--so fine--my soul swam with the sight
and touch of it. Well for me that there broke upon us from above such
a sudden din as turned my hot blood cold! A wild shout of surprise; an
ensuing roar of defiance; shrieks and curses; yells of rage and pain;
and pistol-shot after pistol-shot as loud as cannon in the confined
space.

I know now that the battle in the hall was a very brief affair; while
it lasted I had no sense of time; minutes or moments, they were (God
forgive me!) some of the very happiest in all my life. My joy was as
profound as it was also selfish and incongruous. The villains were being
routed; of that there could be no doubt or question. I hoped Rattray
might escape, but for the others no pity stirred in my heart, and even
my sneaking sympathy with the squire could take nothing from the joy
that was in my heart. Eva Denison was free. I was free. Our oppressors
would trouble us no more. We were both lonely; we were both young; we
had suffered together and for each other. And here she lay in my arms,
her head upon my shoulder, her soft bosom heaving on my own! My blood
ran hot and cold by turns. I forgot everything but our freedom and my
love. I forgot my sufferings, as I would have you all forget them. I
am not to be pitied. I have been in heaven on earth. I was there that
night, in my great bodily weakness, and in the midst of blood-shed,
death, and crime.

"They have stopped!" cried Eva suddenly. "It is over! Oh, if he is
dead!"

And she sat upright, with bright eyes starting from a deathly face. I do
not think she knew that she had been in my arms at all: any more than I
knew that the firing had ceased before she told me. Excited voices were
still raised overhead; but some sounded distant, yet more distinct,
coming through the grating from the garden; and none were vo