ource. He also acted as their almoner,
and distributed relief to the sick, the poor, and the distressed, and
thus passed his pious, harmless, and inoffensive, but useful life. Now
all these circumstances were noted by Hennessy, who had been on the
lookout, to make a present of this good old man to his new patron, Sir
Robert. At length having discovered--by; what means it is impossible to
conjecture--that the Abbe was to go on the day in question to relieve
a poor sick family, at about a distance of two miles from Castle
------, the intelligence was communicated by Hennessy to Sir Robert, who
immediately set out for the place, attended by a party of his myrmidons,
conducted to it by the Red Rapparee, who, as we have said, was now one
of Whitecraft's band. There is often a stupid infatuation in villany
which amounts to what they call in Scotland fey--that is, when a man
goes on doggedly to commit some act of wickedness, or rush upon some
impracticable enterprise, the danger and folly of which must be evident
to every person but himself, and that it will end in the loss of his
life. Sir Robert, however, had run a long and prosperous career of
persecution--a career by which he enriched himself by the spoils he had
torn, and the property he had wrested from his victims, generally under
the sanction of Government, but very frequently under no other sanction
than his own. At all events the party, consisting of about thirty
men, remained in a deep and narrow lane, surrounded by high whitethorn
hedges, which prevented the horsemen--for they were all dragoons--from
being noticed by the country people. Alas, for the poor Abbe! they had
not remained there more than twenty minutes when he was seen approaching
them, reading his breviary as he came along. They did not move, however,
nor seem to notice him, until he had got into the midst of them,
when they formed a circle round him, and the loud voice of Whitecraft
commanded him to stand. The poor old priest closed his breviary, and
looked around him; but he felt no alarm, because he was conscious of
no offence, and imagined himself safe under the protection of a
distinguished Protestant nobleman.

"Gentlemen," said he, calmly and meekly, but without fear, "what is the
cause of this conduct towards an inoffensive old man? It is true I am a
Catholic priest, but I am under the protection of the Marquis of------.
He is a Protestant nobleman, and I am sure the very mention of his name
wil