The Argosy — page 70: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The Robbers’ Cave. 57 down below, and actually went back to the church, locked the door, and remounted those weary steps. The women finished the night together. When the parson returned the following day, he commended Betto, and promised her that she should be rewarded in due time. “ But for Providence I should have lost my head,” he said; ‘and but for you my goods and chattels.” He was not quite easy about the said head, and, bending certain negotiations he was making, passed the nights with Mistress Dinah and the babe in the tower. Betto ‘‘ went along for company,” as she expressed it ; and the number of the refugees was doubled. All of a sudden the countryside became alive with excitement and astonishment. Down came the regiment of bold dragoons at which the Parson hinted. It was to stir up magistrates and local magnates —to memorialise the Queen and her Parliament, and to outwit the robbers that he had been absent from his parish so much and so often ; but nobody ever knew that he was in the secret of the advent of the military. If Dinah shook in her shoes up in the tower-chamber, what of the wicked Ap Madoc at Plas Werne? What of the freebooters ? Perhaps the latter felt the most secure, for long success had em- boldened them, and they feared neither God nor man. But the dragoons were fierce and resolute as they, and being engaged in a righteous cause, were just as fearless. So was the Reverend David Saunders. He knew the country well, and pioneered the military in somewhat reckless fashion, seeing what depended on his safety of limb and life. Wild and exciting were the scenes amongst the mountains, and the soldiers declared they were fighting against devils, not men, so miraculous were the appearances and disappearances of the marauders. Indeed they did not originate this idea, for the peasantry believed their lawless deeds to be done by Satanic agency. However, the red- coats harassed them by night and by day, and at last even made their way through rock, brushwood, and all sorts of obstacles, to their redoubted cave. ‘The prince of the powers of darkness must be in it!” ejaculated the Parson, who was with them in some sort of military disguise; for the cave was empty. ‘We take possession in the Queen’s name,” laughed the soldiers, and they were billeted there and round about that night, while his reverence returned to his cure. And a wild night it proved, for back came the robbers in the dead of it, and those who entered first into their gigantic dwelling were received at the point of the bayonet. Many were massacred before the bulk of the horde knew what was passing. When they found out one of them cried, “Set fire to the cave,” but the soldiers were prepared for this emergency. Those that lay in ambush burst out upon the robbers, and a deadly fight ensued. ‘The robbers fought COMIC OOO SS) (SO) mn