aft's; and when
you see him, tell him I have a crow to pluck with him. Off, I say."

"Oh, I suppose you mean the love-child I had by him--ha, ha! is that
all? But I never had a hankerin' after a rebel and a Papist, which is
far worser; and I now tell you you're no gentleman, you nasty old Hirish
squire. You brought me here, and Sir Robert sent me here, to watch
your daughter. Now, what kind of a young lady must she be as requires
watching? I was never watched; because as how I was well conducted, and
nothing could ever be laid to my charge but a love-child."

"By the great Boyne," he exclaimed, running to the window and throwing
up the sash--"yes, by the great Boyne, there is Tom Steeple, and if he
doesn't bring you and the pump acquainted, I'm rather mistaken. Here,
Tom, I have a job for you. Do you wish to earn a bully dinner, my boy?"

Miss Herbert, on hearing Tom's name mentioned, disappeared like
lightning, and set about packing her things immediately. The steward,
by his master's desire, paid her exactly what was due to her, which she
received without making a single observation. In truth, she entertained
such a terror of Tom Steeple, who had been pointed out to her as a wild
Irishman, not long caught in the mountains, that she stole out by the
back way, and came, by making a circuit, out upon the road that led to
Sir Robert Whitecraft's house, which she passed without entering,
but went directly to Mary Malion's, who had provided a nurse for her
illegitimate child in the neighborhood. She had not been there long when
she sent her trusty friend, Mary, to acquaint Sir Robert with what had
happened. He was from home, engaged in an expedition of which we feel
called upon to give some account to the reader.

At this period, when the persecution ran high against the Catholics, but
with peculiar bitterness against their priesthood, it is but justice to
a great number of the Protestant magistracy and gentry--nay, and many of
the nobility besides--to state that their conduct was both liberal and
generous to the unfortunate victims of those cruel laws. It is a well
known fact that many Protestant justices of the peace were imprisoned
for refusing to execute such oppressive edicts as had gone abroad
through the country. Many of them resigned their commissions, and many
more were deprived of them. Amongst the latter were several liberal
noblemen--Protestants--who had sufficient courage to denounce the spirit
in which the