Hugh crept down the stair to the guard room. The door was ajar and he could see three or four soldiers seated at a table playing cards. Another two or three were sleeping. He slipped noiselessly toward the door but, at that instant, one of the Englishmen looked up and saw him. The guard was on his feet with a cry of alarm on his lips. But Hugh was quicker. He dashed to the door and threw the heavy bolt which secured it from without. The trapped guards pounded on the door with the hilts of their swords but most of the din was lost in the fury of the tempest outside. Enough of it reached the remaining sentry, however, to bring him running from his gallery post. . .
All the enmity between the Irish people and their Elizabethan English rulers is dramatized in the fate of Red Hugh: a champion who struck for Irish liberty, a hero of history, a figure more marvelous than fiction.
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