The Fishguard Invasion by the French in 1797

rror-the memory of my yester-morn's awakening, and then a sense of jubilant triumph as I recalled the Frenchmen's offer and the stout answer of our chief. S

so, you never know where it will get to next, or where you

Every man, woman, and child in Fishguard and all the country round seemed to have turned out, and to be making for the great sands at Goodwick. The people gathered from every direction, east, west, and south, until the semi-circle of hills was dark with them. Chiefly, however, the throng came from the east and south, for Trehowel lay to the west, and there were but few of t

a wild figure smote our

m!" it yelled. "The

ked every one, but there wer

" continued the wild voice

myself near a reliable woman. Nancy stood

m well enough, he lives over there under Trehowel,

ch "blacks," I know not; possibly because they

nbelieving race, aye, thirty

him tell it many a time, years and years ago. Well, I al

the vision, and you know

oice in the crowd; chiefly this response came from elde

d it. I wasn't born

aled to me in a dream; yea, and more than a dream, for I rose up out of my bed and went down on to the rocks and there-on Carreg Gwastad-the French troops landed, and I saw them-aye, as plain as ever a

ll be having a fit. We all know, you've told your dream of

ossession of by a quiet eld

rather suddenly," I observed to Jemima.

Jemima, "as we don't know nothing

red with peasant men, and the red-whittled women who had done such good service to their country, and whos

amous sands-where were stationed in a compact body the Castle Martin Yeomanry Cavalry. Ere long

and Pembrokeshire Volunteers-about three hundred strong: together with the Fishguard Fencibles. Numerically weak we were indeed, but on our own ground and with ri

se of Trehowel. The interview had been a short one, and much to the point; he declined altogether to parley, or parlez-vous.

he French were coming, and at once, and that they were prepared to surrender at discretion. But the Colonel still continued h

tline of the back of whose head seemed strangely familiar to me. I could only see the back of his head for he was leaning out of the cart with his face turned away from me, but towards another person who was standing on the other side of the cart. Some bushes, behind which the cart had been drawn up, prevented a clear view, so I shifted my position a little-in fact, wen

I exclaimed,

shouldn't it be?" cried Nancy, as red as a

ught you must be somebody

, and Ann, in spite of her indigna

and look out for the Frenc

ut short by a shove from Nan's vigorous

as my parting shot, as I made my

and the great boulders of rock which cropped up everywhere were of the same colour. And this greyness seemed to suit this scene better than the brightness of Wednesday would have done; for though it was a day of triumph to us we could not forget that it was a day of humiliation and bitterne

an shows; for a moment I seemed to see the gladiators struggling for life or death, to hear the cruel roar of the lions, to watch the fighting, tearing, and rending in the arena, and to witness what struck me most with awe-the fierce lust for blood which filled the spectator

o make a Rom