, Tiernay.'

'Go, by all means, lad,' broke in the aide-de-camp, who throughout
assumed a tone of dictation and familiarity most remarkable. 'If a stand
is to be made in this miserable country it will be with Rey's force;
here the game will not last much longer. There lies the only man capable
of conducting such an expedition, and his health cannot stand up against
its trials!'

'Not so, Merochamp; I 'll be on horseback to-morrow or the day after at
furthest; and if I never were to take the field again, there are others,
yourself amongst the number, well able to supply my place: but as to
Tiernay--what says he?'

'Make it duty, sir, and I shall go, or remain here with an easy
conscience,' said I.

'Then duty be it, boy,' said he; 'and Merochamp will tell you
everything, for all this discussion has wearied me much, and I cannot
endure more talking.'

'Sit down here,' said the aide-de-camp, pointing to a seat at his side,
'and five minutes will suffice.'

He opened a large map of Ireland before us on the table, and running his
finger along the coast-line of the western side, stopped abruptly at the
bay of Lough Swilly.

'There,' said he, 'that is the spot. There, too, should have been our
own landing! The whole population of the north will be with them--not
such allies as these fellows, but men accustomed to the use of arms,
able and willing to take the field. They say that five thousand men
could hold the passes of those mountains against thirty.'

'Who says this?' said I, for I own it that I had grown marvellously
sceptical as to testimony.

'Napper Tandy, who is a general of division, and one of the leaders of
this force'; and he went on: 'The utmost we can do will be to hold these
towns to the westward till they join us. We may stretch away thus
far,' and he moved his finger towards the direction of Leitrim, but no
farther. 'You will have to communicate with them; to explain what we
have done, where we are, and how we are. Conceal nothing--let them
hear fairly that this patriot force is worth nothing, and that even to
garrison the towns we take they are useless. Tell them, too, the sad
mistake we made by attempting to organise what never can be disciplined,
and let them not arm a population, as we have done, to commit rapine and
plunder.'

Two letters were already written--one addressed to Rey, the other to
Napper Tandy. These I was ordered to destroy if I should happen to
become a prisoner; and with the