Walter placed a sentry at a window, at each side of the house, and he
then lay down on a sofa, for the ride to Limerick and back had greatly
fatigued him, much to his surprise, for he had no idea how far his
strength had been pulled down.
He was aroused, just as day was breaking, by a loud knocking at the door,
and at the same moment a shot was fired from a window above. The soldiers
had started to their feet, and seized their arms as he ran out and bade
them follow him upstairs. He threw up a window.
"Who are you? And what do you want?"
"Never mind who we are," a voice replied. "We want the door opened, and
you had best do it quick."
"Look here, my man," Walter said in a loud, steady voice, "there are
thirty soldiers in this house, and, if I give the word, you will get such
a volley among you, that half of you will never go home to tell about it,
so I warn you to depart quietly."
"It's a lie," the man said. "If you are the officer, you have got only
four men, and you know it. We want to do you no harm, and we don't want
to harm the ladies; but what's in the house is ours--that's the law of
William's troops, and we mean to act up to it."
A chorus of approbation rose from a throng of peasants gathered round the
door.
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