He shot the spokesman, who had dismounted and was advancing with an axe in his hand.  Their fall discouraged the rest, who began to turn round their horses; and a few shots fired at them soon sent them off, bearing along with them their slain or wounded companions.  We could not observe that they suffered any farther loss.  Shortly after their retreat a party of soldiers made their appearance, to my infinite relief.  These men were quartered at a village some miles distant, and had marched on the first rumour of the skirmish.  A part of them escorted the terrified revenue officers and their seizure to a neighbouring seaport as a place of safety, and at my earnest request two or three files remained with us for that and the following day, for the security of the house from the vengeance of these banditti.

’Such, dearest Matilda, was my first alarm.  I must not forget to add that the ruffians left, at a cottage on the roadside, the man whose face was blackened with powder, apparently because he was unable to bear transportation.  He died in about half an hour after.  On examining the corpse, it proved to be that of a profligate boor in the neighbourhood, a person notorious as a poacher and smuggler.  We received many messages of congratulation from the neighbouring families, and it was generally allowed that a few such instances of spirited resistance would greatly check the presumption of these lawless men.  My father distributed rewards among his servants, and praised Hazlewood’s courage and coolness to the skies.  Lucy and I came in for a share of his applause, because we had stood fire with firmness, and had not disturbed him with screams or expostulations.  As for the Dominie, my father took an opportunity of begging to exchange snuff-boxes with him.  The honest gentleman was much flattered with the proposal, and extolled the beauty of his new snuff-box excessively.  “It looked,” he said, “as well as if it were real gold from Ophir.”  Indeed, it would be odd if it should not, being formed in fact of that very metal; but, to do this honest creature justice, I believe the knowledge of its real value would not enhance his sense of my father’s kindness, supposing it, as he does, to be pinchbeck gilded.  He has had a hard task replacing the folios which were used in the barricade, smoothing out the creases and dog’s-ears, and repairing the other disasters they have sustained during their service in the fortification.  He brought us some pieces of lead and bullets which these ponderous tomes had intercepted during the action, and which he had extracted with great care; and, were I in spirits, I could give you a comic account of his astonishment at the apathy with which we heard of the wounds and mutilation suffered by Thomas Aquinas or the venerable Chrysostom.  But I am not in spirits, and I have yet another and a more interesting incident to communicate.  I feel, however, so much fatigued with my present exertion that I cannot resume the pen till to-morrow.  I will detain this letter notwithstanding, that you may not feel any anxiety upon account of your own