“We must die, also,” exclaimed Alick to his mother and his sisters; “we must die,—­but let us die firmly.  Any death, however, is better than one of fire; here we cannot stay longer.  Stoop now, so that we may pass that part of the wall that is beneath the windows, until we reach the lower floor; if we expose ourselves only for a moment, we must share their fate.  Great God! what a fate and what a night!”

By following his advice, they reached the lower floor in safety, and had scarcely done so, when the burning roof crashed in upon the bodies of the proctor and his son, of whose remains nothing but a few cinders were found the next morning.  The falling in of the roof was accompanied by a considerable explosion, owing to the powder which they had left behind them, and the noise of which caused the crowd that was now hemming in the house to pause for a moment, but only for a moment; for they knew now by the explosion, that the ammunition of their enemies was gone, and that “the old fox and his cubs,” as they called them, were probably incapable of further resistance; a reflection which, as it stood not in the way of their cowardice, seemed to increase their fury.

“Revenge now, boys,” shouted a hundred voices; “they have shot our leader along with the rest.  Come on then, sledge in the doors an’ windies, an’ if we lave a single inch of the villains together, may we be hanged like dogs!  Come on, then, they are helpless now; their ammunition’s gone, an’ they can do us no harm.  Blood for blood as far as they go; it’s into inches we must hew them—­into inches—­come on, then!”

A furious assault instantly commenced at the doors and windows.  It was, indeed, a frightful thing to see these men, with their white shirts and black visages, fiercely at work; panting and inflamed with ungovernable rage and vengeance, the red turbid blaze of the burning building lighting them into the similitude of incarnate devils, let loose upon some hellish mission of destruction and blood.  Their own fury, however, impeded their progress, for as they passed onwards to the door, urged by the worst passions of man, it was found that their violence, thus broken and diminished by the struggle, had prevented them from making anything like a rapid progress in breaking in the powerfully-fortified door.  There was consequently another slight pause, during which a circumstance occurred that added a terrible sublimity to the scene.

We have said, that the sky looked angry and portentous, and such was the fact.  During the pauses that now occurred, the distant darkness of the surrounding country was momentarily dispelled by a stronger and more terrific fire than that which now shot up its red and waving pyramids from the burning houses before them.  All at once the black sky opened, and from the chasm of angry clouds a sheet of red lightning flashed, lighting up the darkness of the country around them in a fearful manner; but above all things, and