ak door; bolt after bolt was quickly shot, and Mark,
calling out--"Follow me--this way," rudely pushed wide the door and
entered the tower. A mere passing glance was enough to show that his
excitement was not merely the fruit of passion--his eyes wild and
bloodshot, his flushed cheek, his swollen and heavy lips, all betrayed
that he had drank deeply. His cravat was loose and his vest open, while
the fingers of his right hand were one mass of blood, from the violence
with which he had forced his entrance.

"Come along, Talbot--Holt, this way--come in boys," said he, calling to
those behind. "I told them we should find you here, though they insisted
it was too late."

"Never too late to welcome a guest, Mark, but always too early to part
with one," cried the O'Donoghue, who, although shocked at the condition
he beheld his son in, resolved to betray for the time no apparent
consciousness of it.

"This is my friend, Harry Talbot, father--Sir Archy M'Nab, my uncle.
Holt, where are you? I'll be hanged if they're not slipped away; and
with a fearful imprecation on their treachery, he rushed from the room,
leaving Talbot to make his own advances. The rapid tramp of feet, and
the loud laughter of the fugitives without, did not for a second or two
permit of his few words being heard; but his manner and air had so far
assured Sir Archy, that he stopped short as he was about to leave the
room, and saluted him courteously.

"It would be very ungracious in me," said Talbot, smiling, "to disparage
my friend Mark's hospitable intentions, but in truth I feel so much
ashamed for the manner of our entry here this evening, that I cannot
express the pleasure such a visit would have given me under more
becoming circumstances."

Sir Archibald's surprise at the tone in which these words were
delivered, did not prevent him making a suitable reply, while
relinquishing his intention of retiring, he extinguished his candle, and
took a seat opposite Talbot.

Having in an early chapter of our tale presented this gentleman to
our reader's notice, we have scarcely any thing to add on the present
occasion. His dress indeed was somewhat different; then, he wore a
riding costume--now he was habited in a frock richly braided, and
ornamented with a deep border of black fur; a cap of the same skin,
from which hung a band of deep gold lace, he also carried in his hand--a
costume which at the time would have been called foreign.

While Sir Archy was