A train of armed men, some noble dame Escorting, (so their scatter’d words discover’d, As unperceived I hung upon their rear,) Are close at hand, and mean to pass the night Within the castle.

ORRA, A TRAGEDY

The travellers had now reached the verge of the wooded country, and were about to plunge into its recesses, held dangerous at that time from the number of outlaws whom oppression and poverty had driven to despair, and who occupied the forests in such large bands as could easily bid defiance to the feeble police of the period. From these rovers, however, notwithstanding the lateness