weaker
members of the family awaited the issue of the combat which was to
bring them life or death, listening breathlessly to the uproar, and
endeavouring, from its confused sounds, to determine good or evil.

At last the voices died away, and the hideous cries of the besiegers
ceased. The trembling women believed that the Wallachians had been
driven out, and, breathing more freely, each awaited with impatience
the approach of brother--husband--sons.

At last a heavy step was heard on the stairs leading to the garret.

"That is Barnabas's step!" cried the widow joyfully, and, still
holding the pistols in her hand, she ran to the door of the garret.

Instead of her expected brother, a savage form, drunken with blood,
strode towards her, his countenance burning with rage and triumph.

The widow started back, uttering a shriek of terror, and then, with
that unaccountable courage of desperation, she aimed one of the
pistols at the Wallachian's breast, who instantly fell backwards on
one of his comrades, who followed close behind. The other pistol she
discharged into her own bosom.

And now we must draw a veil over the scene that followed.

What happened there may not be witnessed by human eyes. Suffice it to
say, they murdered every one, women and children, with the most
refined and brutal cruelty, and then threw their dead bodies out of
the window from which Barnabas had dashed down the iron fragments on
the besiegers' heads.

They left the old grandmother to the last, that she might witness the
extermination of her whole family. Happily for her, her eyes had
ceased to distinguish the light of the sun, and ere long the light of
an eternal glory had risen upon them.

The Wallachians then dug a common grave for the bodies, and threw them
all in together. The little one, whom his parents loved so well, they
cast in alive, his nurse having escaped from the attics and carried
him down stairs, where they had been overtaken by the savages.

"There are only eleven here!" cried one of the gang, who had counted
the bodies; "one of them must be still alive somewhere--there ought to
be twelve!" and then they once more rushed through the empty rooms,
overturning all the furniture, and cutting up and breaking everything
they met with. They searched the garrets and every corner of the
cellars, but without success.

At last a yell of triumph was heard. One of them had discovered a door
which, being painted of the same colour