oy's sowl!--an'--afterwards my
own. There was one that seemed to hould authority over the rest, and he
axed who was my landlord? I said I had no landlord. They then said
that surely I must pay rent to some one, but I said that I paid rent
to nobody; that Mr. Reilly here, God bless him, gave me this house and
garden free."

"And what did they say when you named Mr. Reilly?"

"Why, they said he was a dacent Papish, I think they called it; and that
there wasn't sich another among them. They then lighted their pipes, had
a smoke, went about their business, and I saw no more of them from that
day to this."

Reilly felt that this conversation was significant, and that the widow's
cabin was any thing but a safe place of refuge, even for a few hours. We
have already said that he had been popular with all parties, which was
the fact, until his acquaintance with the old squire and his lovely
daughter. In the meantime the loves of Willy Reilly and the far-famed
_Cooleen Bawn_ had gone abroad over the whole country; and the natural
result was that a large majority among those who were anxious to
exterminate the Catholic Church by the rigor of bigoted and inhuman
laws, looked upon the fact of a tolerated Papist daring to love a
Protestant heiress, and the daughter of a man who was considered such a
stout prop of the Establishment, as an act that deserved death itself.
Reilly's affection for the _Cooleen Bawn_ was considered, therefore,
not only daring but treasonable. Those men, then, he reflected, who had
called upon her while in pursuit of the unfortunate priest, had become
acquainted with the fact of her dependence upon his bounty; and he took
it for granted, very naturally and very properly, as the event
will show, that now, while "on his keeping," it would not be at all
extraordinary if they occasionally searched her remote and solitary
cabin, as a place where he might be likely to conceal himself. For this
night, however, he experienced no apprehension of a visit from them, but
with what correctness of calculation we shall soon see.

"Molly," said he, this poor man and I must sit with you for a couple of
hours, after which we will leave you to your rest."

"Indeed, Mr. Reilly," she replied, "from what I heard this day I can
make a party good guess at the raison why you are here now, instead
of bein' in your own comfortable house. You have bitther enemies; but
God--blessed be his name--is stronger than any of them. However