ushed open the sash
at once--but before I was well in the room, bells were ringing in every
quarter of the house, and men's voices calling aloud, and shouting to
each other--when, suddenly, the door opened, and whiz went a pistol-ball
close by my head, and shattered the shutter behind me. My fellows,
outside, hearing the shot, unslung their pieces, and before I could
get down to them, poured in a volley--why, wherefore, or upon whom, the
devil himself, that instigated them, can tell. The garrison mustered
strong, however, and replied--that they did, by Jove, for one of ours,
Emile de Louvois, is badly wounded. I sounded the retreat, but the
scoundrels would not mind me--and before I was able to prevent it,
_tete bleu!_ they had got round to the farmyard, and set fire to the
corn-stacks; in a second, the corn and hay blazed up, and enveloped
house and all in smoke. I sounded the retreat once more, and off the
villains scampered, with poor Emile, to the boat; and I, finding my
worthy friend here an inactive spectator of the whole from a grove near
the road, resolved not to give up my supper--and so, _me voici!_--but
come, can none of you explain this affair? What is Hemsworth doing,
with all this armed household, and this captive princess?"

"Is the 'Lodge' burned down?" said Lanty, whose interest in the
inhabitants had a somewhat selfish origin.

"No, they got the fire tinder. I saw a wild-looking devil mount one of
the ricks, with a great canvas sail all wetted, and drag it over the
burning stack--and before I left the place, the Lodge was quite safe."

"I'm sorry for it," said Mary, with a savage determination. "I'm sorry
to the heart's core. Luck nor grace never was in the glen, since the
first stone of it was laid--nor will be again, till it is a ruin! Why
didn't they lay it in ashes, when they were about it?"

"Faith, it seemed to me," said Talbot, in a low soft voice, "they would
have asked nothing better. I never saw such bull-dogs in my life. It was
all you could do, Flahault, to call them off."

"True enough," replied Jacques, laughing. "They enjoy a _brisee_ like
that with all their hearts."

"The English won't stay long here, after this night," was Lanty's sage
reflection, but one which he did not utter aloud in the present company.
And then, in accordance with Jacques' request, he proceeded to explain
by what different tenants the Lodge became occupied since his last
visit; and that an English baronet a