"For so soon as the alarm spread that Castleroe and the town of Coleraine were to be attacked, fifty of our guard and three cannon were drawn away thither this very morning.

I know it, for I stood sentinel when Captain Merriman--" "He! is he there ?" demanded Ludar.
"No, in truth," said the soldier, "'twas he rode over from Castleroe and took away half our men, leaving us, in place, a parcel of puling women to mind, whom he might have kept with better grace at Castleroe." "And who are these women ?" asked Ludar with heightened colour.
"They say the fair one is a sweetheart of his own--a straight enough lass, but not of the sort I would willingly undertake myself.

Some say she is kinswoman to the O'Neill or his lady, whom the captain was sent to guard hither; but, to my thinking, he was on his own business more than Turlogh's, and when this fighting be over we shall see him come back for his ladybird.

I pray you, gentles," continued this man, who was of a careless sort, and distressed by no mischance, "permit me to return to the castle with this brace of birds.

They are, in fact, for this same young lady, to whom our coarse fare hath little to recommend it, and who, being sickly, needs a dainty.