The dragoons, who, weary with their long march, had just unsaddled, turned out wondering at the order; but when they heard what had happened, they mounted with an impatience for vengeance equal to that of their general.

Arriving at the village they found, to their great disappointment, that the murderers had fled, and that hardly any of the inhabitants remained.

They found, however, hidden in the church, the clothes of some of the murdered guardsmen.

The sacristan of the church was alleged by the inhabitants, who were narrowly examined, to have taken an active part in the slaughter, and the earl ordered him to be hung up at once to the knocker of his own door.

The troops then rode up to the top of the hill, and the earl and his aides de camp dismounted at the edge of the pit.