There was a knock at the door. Hannah, standing in a corner of the room, and hidden from any one looking in through the window, neither spoke nor stirred. The knocking was repeated, and again repeated. Hannah remained silent. “Open the door,” shouted a voice from without, “open the door at once.” Still there was no reply. “We know you’re within, Hannah Macaulay, we saw the light before you put it out. Open to us, or we’ll batter in the door, and then it will be the worse for you.” “And who may be you that come knocking and banging the door of a dacent house at this time o’ night, making a hullabaloo fit for to wake the dead; and it the blessed Sabbath too?” “Sabbath be damned; it’s Thursday night.” “Is it, then, is it? There’s them that wouldn’t know if it was Monday nor Tuesday, nor yet Wednesday, nor the blessed Sabbath day itself, and, what’s more, wouldn’t care if they did know. That just shows what like lads you are. Away home out o’ this to your beds, if so be that you have any beds to go to.” In fact the men outside were perfectly right. The day was Thursday, though it neared Friday. The Sabbath was a long way off yet, as Hannah knew quite well. “You doited old hag, open the door.” “I’m a lone widow woman,” said Hannah, plaintively, “I canna be letting the likes of ye in and me in my bed. It wouldna be dacent if I did. Where’d my good name be if I did the like and me not know ye?” A savage kick at the door shook it on its hinges. “Bide quiet, now,” said Hannah, “and tell me who ye are afore I open to you. Would you have me let robbers intil the house, and the master awa’?” “We’re men of the Killulta yeomanry, we’re here to search the house by order of Captain Twinely. Open in the King’s name.” “Why couldn’t ye have tellt me that afore? There isn’t a woman living has as much respect for the King as mysel’. Wait now, wait till I slip on my petticoat. You wouldna have a woman come to the door to you in her shift, would ye?” There was a long pause--too long for the yeomen outside. Another kick, and then another, shook the door. Hannah went over to it and began to fumble with the bolt. “I’m afeard,” she said, “that the lock’s hampered.” “I’ll soon cure that; stand clear of the keyhole till I fire.” “For the Lord’s sake, man, dinna be shootin’ aff your guns, I canna abide the sound o’ the like. It dizzens me. Dinna be hasty, fair and easy goes far in the day. Who is it you said you were?” “The yeomen, you deaf old hag.” “The yeomen, God bless us, the yeomen. That’s the kind of lads that dresses themselves up braw in sojers’ coats and then, when there’s any fighting going on, let’s the real sojers do it, and they stand and look round to see the gommerels admiring them. Faith I’ll let you in. There’s no call even for a hirplin ould woman with one foot in the grave and the ither out of it to be afeard of the likes of you.”