The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — 1845-06-10 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

BURNING A MIDDLEMAN.—The evening had long deepened into night, yet still she sat and wept ; looking out into the darkness. Her attention was roused by a bright and sudden flame shooting upwards ; it could not be, sbe thought, very far from Spencer Court. She stept to the window and saw what, at the moment, she hoped might be a bonfire, at the foot of one of the nearest mountains. She thought she heard the winding of a horn, and an halloo. She opened the casement ; and then, certainly and distinctly. she heard a horn blown not very far distant, answered by another, and another. With trembling eagerness she watched the progress of the fire : after the first rush of light into the sky, it burnt low and red, and then gradually rose and rose like a pyre, spreading above and around, increasing with fearful intensity. After a while she could see dark figures pass, catching for an instant the brightness of the light ; and so still was the night that she beard the halloos, the yells, and the horns, issuing their terrible warnings, or calling to the mountaindwellers. A dreadful thought took possession of her mind, and chained her to the spot ; where she continued to stand without the power to withdraw. " The boys are early at work this evenin', Miss," said Biddy, from the garden, in an unconcerned voice, as she looked up at Ellen, " and your's is the only windy in the house that has so fine a view, Miss, dear ; Mrs. Myler and the rest are podgering away at the work within. Bedad, if the young master comes home to-night, he can't but say that Abel Richards' house makes a flue bonfire to welcome him." Lawrence Macarthy's words rang upon Ellen's heart; she could hardly articulate. She fixed her eyes upon the conflagration waxing stronger and stronger; it was the nearest appreach the Fire King of the Whiteboys had yet made to Spencer Court. " Well !" continued the housemaid, "he gave many a one a cowld death. It's a hot one he'll have himself." " Surely, surely, he is not there !" exclaimed Ellen. "Oh ! murder, Miss, they wouldn't be the fools to burn the house and he not in it," was the cool reply. It would be impossible to describe Ellen's sensations; her heart beat violently. " I wonder," said the girl, " would they have been so soon upon Black Aby only for the word of the soldiers that's to come into Kenmare, to-morrow." " Oh, mercy ! what a howl was that !" exclaimed Ellen, pressing her face into her hands. " Ah, ab !" laughed the girl below," it was a strong cry, sure enough. Well, Miss, he was no friend of yours, and —whisht." She sprang upon a wheelbarrow that was under the window, and light of foot and limb, swung herself into the balcony. "If any thing—l mane any questions were to he asked—sure you and I, and that half-witted Master Mat, could well prove an alibi for Mr. Lawrence; sure, I saw him with you all this evening." " Mr.• Lawrence !" repeated Ellen, drawing herself up proudly. " Mr. Lawrence!" how dare you to suppose him to be concerned in such an autrage as that." " Outrage ! I call it justice, Miss Ellen ; and so will all the counthry. What's come to her at all," she muttered, as the moon at full, bursting through the clouds, shone upon Ellen, showing her white and rigid as marble. " God bless us, is it dead standing she is? Well," continued the girl, lifting her in her arms and lavieg her on the sofa, " well, I never see the likes o' that. With the glory of that fire through the country, to think of her taking on so for the burning of ould Richards !"—The Whilebry, bu Mrs. S. C. Hall.