Even if they are in the neighbourhood, the rapparees will hardly venture an attack upon a house occupied by even a few of our troops.

Still, it is always wisest to be prepared, and therefore, I should like for us to arrange exactly what had best be done in the event of an attack.

Of course, I shall see that all the doors and the lower windows are securely fastened, and I shall have the men from the stables into the house, so we shall be nine or ten men in all; enough, I hope, for all circumstances.

Still, merely as a matter of discussion, let us suppose the worst.

Let us imagine the house surrounded, the doors burst in, and the resistance on the point of being overpowered.