Before answer to this question she dropped a firebrand upon the
flax, which had been previously steeped in some spirituous liquor,
for it instantly caught fire and rose in a vivid pyramid of the
most brilliant light up to the very top of the vault. As it
ascended Meg answered the ruffian's question in a firm and steady
voice: 'BECAUSE THE HOUR'S COME, AND THE MAN.'

At the appointed signal Bertram and Dinmont sprung over the
brushwood and rushed upon Hatteraick. Hazlewood, unacquainted with
their plan of assault, was a moment later. The ruffian, who
instantly saw he was betrayed, turned his first vengeance on Meg
Merrilies, at whom he discharged a pistol. She fell with a
piercing and dreadful cry between the shriek of pain and the sound
of laughter when at its highest and most suffocating height. 'I
kenn'd it would be this way,' she said.

Bertram, in his haste, slipped his foot upon the uneven rock which
floored the cave--a fortunate stumble, for Hatteraick's second
bullet whistled over him with so true and steady an aim that, had
he been standing upright, it must have lodged in his brain. Ere
the smuggler could draw another pistol, Dinmont closed with him,
and endeavoured by main force to pinion down his arms. Such,
however, was the wretch's personal strength, joined to the efforts
of his despair, that, in spite of the gigantic force with which
the Borderer grappled him, he dragged Dinmont through the blazing
flax, and had almost succeeded in drawing a third pistol, which
might have proved fatal to the honest farmer, had not Bertram, as
well as Hazlewood, come to his assistance, when, by main force,
and no ordinary exertion of it, they threw Hatteraick on the
ground, disarmed him, and bound him. This scuffle, though it takes