"Impossible, sirs: ye have been asleep on your posts, or
ye must have seen him. He passed this way, and could not
have escaped your observation had ye been attentive to
your duty."

"Well, sure, and your honour knows bist," rejoined the
first sentinel; "but so hilp me St. Patrick, as I have
sirved man and boy in your honour's rigimint this twilve
years, not even the fitch of a man has passed me this
blissed night. And here's my comrade, Jack Halford, who
will take his Bible oath to the same, with all due
difirince to your honour."

The pithy reply to this eloquent attempt at exculpation
was a brief "Silence, sirrah, walk about!"

The men brought their muskets once more, and in silence,
to the shoulder, and, in obedience to the command of
their chief, resumed the limited walk allotted to them;
crossing each other at regular intervals in the semicircular
course that enfiladed, as it were, the only entrance to
the Governor's apartments.

Meanwhile every thing was bustle and commotion among the
garrison, who, roused from sleep by the appalling sound
of the alarm bell at that late hour, were hastily arming.
Throughout the obscurity might be seen the flitting forms
of men, whose already fully accoutred persons proclaimed
them to be of the guard; while in the lofty barracks,