it from marauders.  You can imagine my anxiety, as I rode out, and how it was increased when I found the place absolutely deserted.  From the trooper whom we took with us, we learned something of what had taken place.  He had been in the garden, but the officers and nearly half the troopers were in the house.  Suddenly, the sounds of a conflict were heard within.  Then many of his comrades jumped from the windows, and, as they reported the number of the assailants was not large, an attack was made upon the house.  After considerable loss, an entrance was effected, and they were gradually overcoming the defenders, when they were attacked in the rear by a fresh body of the enemy, and only a few of them managed to make their escape.

“The appearance of the house fully corroborated his story.  The inside was piled with dead, who were found scattered all over the house.  Among them were a few men in the uniform of one of the Irish cavalry regiments.  This was some alleviation to my terrible anxiety.  Had the assailants been a body of peasants, I should have feared that they had wreaked on you and Claire the hatred which they feel, I own not unjustly, towards the king’s foreign troops.  As they were regular soldiers, I had hopes that they had only carried you off as hostages.

“One of the female servants was found below, killed.  No pursuit was possible, as we could find no one of whom to inquire by which way the enemy retreated; but, in the morning, we found that the horses of the Hessians had been ridden to a spot some miles up the river, where they had swam or forded the stream.  There was a strong party of the enemy on the opposite side.  My anxiety was terrible, till I received your letter, and you may imagine how great a shock it was to me to learn the frightful scene through which you had passed, and how my sentiments changed towards those whom I had regarded as your abductors, but whom I now learn were your saviours.

“I have read that portion of your letter to the king, who is furious at the evil conduct of his troops.  He has, all along, done everything in his power to repress it; but when not under his immediate eye, it seems as if all discipline was lost, and the troops behaved rather as a horde of savages than as soldiers.  After what had happened, I cannot blame you for the opinion you express in your letter, or for your determination not to trust yourself and Claire in this camp, although I am sure that the king would send a detachment of his own Dutch guards with you to Dublin.  I trust that you will, as soon as the work you have undertaken is over, go to our cousins at Galway, and take ship without delay to England, where I will at once join you, when I hear of your arrival there.