Stuarts is incredible. They would ruin the best cause in the
world. With a spark of wisdom and firmness, James might have united all
Ireland in his cause, instead of which he has absolutely forced the
Protestants into hostility. His folly is only equalled by his rapacity,
and both are stupendous."

This was said, one evening, when he had just returned from a visit to
Dublin, depressed and disheartened by all he heard there.

"I am astonished, Fergus," his mother said sharply, "to hear you speak in
that way. Who would have thought that it was a Davenant who was speaking!
Doubtless there have been mistakes, as was only natural, but everything
will come right, in time. I have been longing for you to come home,
looking forward with such joy to welcome you as the possessor of the
broad lands of the Davenants. Thank God I have lived to see the
restoration of my dear husband's lands, and the discomfiture of those
Cromwellian knaves, who have so long possessed them. It was a grand day
when the act was passed, repealing all Cromwell's grants handing over the
best part of Ireland to his soldiers; and I saw in the Gazette, among the
two thousand grants specially mentioned as cancelled, was that of the
Davenant estate to Zephaniah Whitefoot. I am told that the old man and
his son have taken no notice of the act, but go about their work as if
they were still the owners of the land; but of course, now that you are
back, there will soon be an end of this."

Captain Davenant was silent.

"I shall be in no hurry, mother," he said, after a pause. "It is true
that an act of the Irish parliament has cancelled the iniquitous work of
Cromwell, and restored the land to its rightful possessors. I do not say
that this is not just, but I am quite sure that it is not politic. These
men have been planted on the soil for two generations. They have built
houses and tilled the fields, and made homes for themselves. It was
essentially a case for arrangement, and not for setting right the first
act of confiscation by another as sweeping. It has rendered the
Protestants desperate. It has enlisted the sympathy of the Protestants of
England in their behalf, and has done much to popularize the war there.
It would have been vastly wiser, had a commission been ordered to examine
into the circumstances of each case.

"In the great proportion of cases, the estates which the Cromwellites
took possession of were vastly larger than they were able to till
th