There was a startling fierceness in the voice of the trooper
that reached to the heart, even amid the horrors of the cot-
tage. The leader of the Skinners dropped his plunder,
and, for a moment, he stood in nerveless dread ; then rush-
ing to a window, he threw up the sash; — at this instant
Lawton entered, sabre in hand, into the apartment.
"Die, miscreant!" cried the trooper, cleaving a marauder
to the jaw : but the leader sprang into the lawn, and escaped
his vengeance. The shrieks of the females restored Lawton
to his presence of mind, and the earnest entreaty of the
divine induced him to attend to the safety of the family.
One more of the gang fell in with the dragoons, and met his
death; but the remainder had taken the alarm in season.
Occupied with Sarah, neither Miss Singleton, nor the ladies
of the house, had discovered the entrance of the Skinners,
though the flames were raging around them with a fury that
threatened the building with rapid destruction. The shrieks
of Katy and the terrified consort of Caesar, together with the
noise and uproar in the adjacent apartment, first roused
Miss Peyton and Isabella to a sense of their danger.
