It was quite evident, from the disturbed and unsettled appearance of the country for miles around, and from the circumstance of such an unusual multitude being on foot in the course of the evening, that some deed of more than ordinary importance or danger was to be done.  The Purcel’s, ever on the watch, soon learned that they were to be attacked on that very night by those who had threatened them so often, and to whom they themselves had so frequently sent back a stern and fierce defiance.  Little had they calculated, however, that the onset would be made by men so well armed and in such prodigious multitudes.

Such was the state of society at that period, that scarcely any one individual could place confidence in another.  The Purcels, knowing that they were looked upon by the people in a hostile spirit, and aware of the disguises which those secret confederacies, that are so peculiar to our unfortunate country, often take for treacherous and vindictive purposes, came to the resolution of putting every servant in the house, male and female, from off the premises.  This they did on discovering Mogue Moylan’s treachery with respect to the fire-arms; for, in point of fact, they knew not on whom to depend.  M’Carthy’s disappearance was also a mystery which occasioned them considerable anxiety and doubt.  That he should have abandoned them in the very moment of danger, was a circumstance quite out of their calculation.  On the other hand, it was obvious that he had done so, and that from whatever motive his conduct proceeded, he distinctly separated himself from them, at the very crisis when his presence and assistance might have been of service.

In the meantime they began to make preparations for their defence.  Purcel’s dwelling-house was a long, two-storied building, deeply thatched.  He himself and his eldest son carried up a large supply of arms and ammunition to the top room, where they took their station so as to command the large gate of the recently-built fortress wall, by which the house and adjoining premises were surrounded.  Alick, his mother and sisters, remained below, in such a position that they could command the gate also, without exposing themselves to danger.  The mother and daughters had been well trained to load and even to discharge fire-arms; and now they were both competent and willing to take an important part in defense of their own lives, as well as those who were so dear to them.

“Well,” said John Purcel, when every necessary preparation had been made, “I never could, have dreamt that Frank M’Carthy was either a coward or a traitor.”

“I very much fear,” replied his brother, “that he is either the one or the other, if not both.  If he has got a hint—­ha!—­do you hear that again?—­they are firing still as they come along—­if he has got a hint of this attack and abandoned us, I have not words to express my contempt for him.  What a bravo lover you have got, Julia!” he exclaimed, turning to his sister, “thus to desert you in the hour of danger.”