of the gang of desperadoes with them, that it was these and these only who had fired upon the soldiers as they ascended the rocks, and that the peasants themselves had no firearms; indeed, it was proved that only five guns were found in the cave.  He admitted that in their desperation at the last moment the men had defended themselves with pikes and bludgeons; but this he urged was but an effort of despair, and not with any premeditated idea of resisting the troops.  He pointed out that as all the soldiers had fallen by gunshot wounds, none of the prisoners at the bar had any hand in their death.  The counsel for the crown did not press for capital sentences.  Two of the men, who had before suffered terms of imprisonment for being concerned in running illicit stills, were sentenced to transportation.  The others escaped with terms of imprisonment.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE NEW HOUSEMAID.

“What do you think of the new housemaid, Charlotte?”

“As she has only been here twenty-four hours,” Miss Penfold replied, “I don’t think I can say anything about it, Eleanor.  All servants behave decently for the first week or two, then their faults begin to come out.  However, she seems quiet in her way of going about, and that is something.  My room was carefully dusted this morning.  These are the only two points on which I can at present say anything.”

“I met her in the passage this morning,” Eleanor Penfold said, “and it seemed to me that her face reminded me of some one.  Did that strike you?”

“Not at all,” the elder sister replied decidedly.  “I am not given to fancies about such things.  I saw no likeness to any one, and if I had done so I should not have given it a second thought.  The one point with us is whether the woman is clean, quiet, steady, and thoroughly up to her work.  Her reference said she was all these things, and I hope she will prove so.  She is older than I like servants to be, that is, when they first come to us.  A young girl is teachable, but when a servant has once got into certain ways there is never any altering them.  However, if she knows her work it does not matter; and there’s one comfort, at her age she is less likely to be coming to us one day or other soon and saying that she wants to leave us to get married.”

The new servant, Anna, as she was called in the house soon settled down to her duty.  Miss Penfold allowed that she knew her work and did it carefully.  The servants did not quite understand the newcomer.  She was pleasant and friendly, but somehow “she was not,” as one of them said, “of their sort.”  This they put down partly to the fact that she had been in service in London, and was not accustomed to country ways.  However, she was evidently obliging and quiet, and smoothed away any slight feeling of hostility with which the under housemaid was at first disposed to feel against her for coming in as a stranger over her head, by saying