ne?"

"Sir Robert Whitecraft and his men did it, sir."

"Ay, but I can't conceive he had any authority for such an act."

"Wasn't Mr. Reilly an outlaw, sir? Didn't the Red Rapparee, who is now a
good Protestant, swear insurrection against him?"

"The red devil, sirra," replied the old squire, forgetting his animosity
to Reilly in the atrocity and oppression of the deed--"the red
devil, sirra! would that justify such a cowardly scoundrel as Sir
Robert--ugh--ugh--ugh--that went against my breath, Helen. Well, come
here, I say, you old sinner; they burned the place, you say?"

"Sir Robert and his men did, sir."

"I'm not doubting that, you old house-leek. I know Sir Robert too
well--I know the infernal--ahem; a most excellent loyal gentleman, with
two or three fine estates, both here and in England; but he prefers
living here, for reasons best known to himself and me, and--and to
somebody else. Well, they burned Reilly out--but tell me this; did they
catch the rascal himself? eh? here's five pounds for you, if you can say
they have him safe."

"That's rather a loose bargain, your honor," replied the man with a
smile; "for saying it?--why, what's to prevent me from saying it, if I
wished?"

"None of your mumping, you old snapdragon; but tell me the truth, have
they secured him hard and fast?"

"No, sir, he escaped them, and as report goes they know nothing about
him, except that they haven't got him."

Deep and speechless was the agony in which Helen sat during this short
dialogue, her eyes having never once been withdrawn from the butler's
countenance; but now that she had heard of her lover's personal safety,
a thick, smothered sob, which, if it were to kill her, she could not
repress, burst from her bosom. Unwilling that either her father or the
servant should witness the ecstasy which she could not conceal, and
feeling that another minute would disclose the delight which convulsed
her heart and frame, she arose, and, with as much composure as she could
assume, went slowly out of the room. On entering her apartment, she
signed to her maid to withdraw, after which she closed and bolted the
door, and wept bitterly. The poor girl's emotion, in fact, was of a
twofold character; she wept with joy at Reilly's escape from the
hands of his cruel and relentless enemy, and with bitter grief at the
impossibility which she thought there existed that he should ultimately
be able to keep out of the meshes which she knew Wh