At length one of the party, his face blackened with gunpowder by way of disguise, came forward with a white handkerchief on the end of his carbine, and asked to speak with Colonel Mannering.

My father, to my infinite terror, threw open a window near which he was posted, and demanded what he wanted.

"We want our goods, which we have been robbed of by these sharks," said the fellow; "and our lieutenant bids me say that, if they are delivered, we'll go off for this bout without clearing scores with the rascals who took them; but if not, we'll burn the house, and have the heart's blood of every one in it,"-- a threat which he repeated more than once, graced by a fresh variety of imprecations, and the most horrid denunciations that cruelty could suggest.
'"And which is your lieutenant ?" said my father in reply.
'"That gentleman on the grey horse," said the miscreant, "with the red handkerchief bound about his brow." '"Then be pleased to tell that gentleman that, if he and the scoundrels who are with him do not ride off the lawn this instant, I will fire upon them without ceremony." So saying, my father shut the window and broke short the conference.
'The fellow no sooner regained his troop than, with a loud hurra, or rather a savage yell, they fired a volley against our garrison.

The glass of the windows was shattered in every direction, but the precautions already noticed saved the party within from suffering.

Three such volleys were fired without a shot being returned from within.