They consequently set but a slight value upon it.

The result was that the pursuits after them by foreign soldiers, and other persons but slightly acquainted with the country, generally ended in disaster and death to several of the pursuers.
On the morning in question the tory-hunters literally beat the woods as if they had been in the pursuit of game, but for a considerable time with little effect.

Not the appearance of a single tory was anywhere visible; but, notwithstanding this, it so happened that some one of their enemies occasionally dropped, either dead or wounded, by a shot from the intricacies and covers of the woods, which, upon being searched and examined, afforded no trace whatsoever of those who did the mischief.

This was harassing and provocative of vengeance to the military and such wretched police as existed in that day.

No search could discover a single trace of a tory, and many of those in the pursuit were obliged to withdraw from it--not unreluctantly, indeed, in order to bear back the dead and wounded to the town of Rathfillan.
As they were entering an open space that lay between two wooded enclosures, a white hare started across their path, to the utter consternation of those who were in pursuit.