nseveric. "On the
contrary, I was treated with as much courtesy as was possible under the
circumstances. I would ask your forbearance towards any prisoners you
may take, and your kindness to the wounded. There are many of them in
the churchyard."

"You may be sure that your lordship's recommendation shall have due
weight with me."

The words were civil, but Lord Dunseveric detected a sneer in the voice
which uttered them. He was not well pleased.

"I trust, sir," he said coldly, "that I am to take your words literally
and not interpret them in accordance with the tone in which they are
spoken."

"If you want plain speaking, Lord Dunseveric," said the general, "I
shall deal with the rebels, whole or wounded, as rebels deserve. I mean
to make these Antrim farmers as tame as gelt cats before I've done with
them."

He beckoned to an officer of his staff, and gave some orders. In a few
minutes several companies of mounted yeomen and dragoons trotted out of
the town.

"It is a good job," said General Clavering, "that the rebels succeeded
in getting away. If we had cut off their retreat we might have had some
hard fighting. There is nothing nastier than tackling a rat in a corner.
It is a much simpler business to cut up flying men. All beaten troops
straggle and desert. Irregulars, operating in their own country, simply
melt away after a defeat. They sneak off home, hide their arms in hay
stacks, and pretend they never left their ploughs. I know their ways,
and, by God, I'll track them. I'll ferret them out."

General Clavering's estimate of the conduct of irregular troops had
something in it. Even James Hope's influence failed to keep his men from
straggling. They had fought well while there was any chance of victory,
but war was strange to them. The horrors of wounds and death, the bitter
disappointment of defeat, the hopeless outlook of the future, depressed
them. Their homes were near at hand. Within a few miles of them were the
familiar cottages, the waiting, anxious wives, the little children with
eager faces. There was always the chance for each man that he might
escape unknown, that his share in the rising might be forgotten. One and
another dropped out of the ranks, slipped across the fields, sought to
get home again along by-paths. It was not possible for Hope to delay his
march in order to reason with his men--to hearten and steady them. He
knew that the enemy would be swift in pursuit, that he must press o