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MAGUS

113 Accordingly, at the appointed hour, she cautiously set out for the hiding-place of her lover, which was cave not far from the scene of their conversation when last introduced to the reader. In the interval of darkness which occurs between an autumn sunset and the rising of the moon, she stole away unobserved, as she thought, from her father’s by a circuitous pathway to the shore. Every flutter made amongst the rocks by the home-returning seagulls and gannets filled her with alarm; and it was with a palpitating heart that she reached the refuge of her anxiously expectant lover. We need not attempt to describe the wild extravagance of delight with which Murtough clasped her to his heart, forgetting his own danger and thinking only of presence; nor the passionate burst of mingling grief and joy with which she received his embraces. Such a scene can be better imagined than described. In the very midst of their mutual rapture, young Carroll suddenly let go his hold of Mary and bounding from her, seized his gun which he had placed against the rock. A month’s “keeping” had given him the ear of an Indian and he fancied that he had heard a low, momentary sound outside. He darted out, followed by Mary in an agony of terror. For a minute he saw nothing to excite alarm; but a cloud passing from before the newly risen moon exposed to view a party of soldiers stealthily creeping round the jutting base of a rock about fifty yards from where the lovers stood. “In, Mary, in; back into the cave and as you value my life and your own, neither move or speak”, hurriedly exclaimed Murtough in an earnest whisper, and pushing her back into the shelter of the rock. But the injunction was needless and unheard for she had already fainted in his arms. He laid her gently down on the mossy sward which carpeted the entrance to the cavern and turned to rush out. “Surrender in the King’s name or I’ll fire”, shouted the serjeant of yeomanry, who had been the first to reach the mouth of the narrow passage and now levelled his carbine at Carroll. “Never, by the holy Virgin!” The man fired and the bullet splintered the rock within a few inches of where Murtough stood. He bounded forward and, knocking over the serjeant with a blow of his musket, gained the open space in front of the cave. In a moment he saw that escape was all but impossible. The only means of flight was by a narrow winding ridge which connected his place of concealment with rocks landward and over this dangerous pathway the other soldiers were

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