honour may
guess what we felt, when we got back. Thank God I had no children! We
buried the wife in the garden behind the house, and then started away and
joined a band of rapparees, and paid some of them back in their own coin.
Then, one day, the Enniskilleners fell on us, and most of us were killed.
Then we made our way back to the old village, and came up here and built
us this hut. It's a wonder to us how you got here; for there are bogs
stretching away in all directions, and how you made your way through them
bates us entirely."

"Yours is a sad story, but unfortunately a common one. And how have you
managed to live here?"

"There are plenty of potatoes, for the digging of 'em," the man said,
"for there are a score of ruined villages within a day's walk. As for
meat, there are cattle for the taking, wandering all over the country;
some have lately strayed away; but among the hills there are herds which
have run wild since the days when Cromwell made the country a desert. As
for spirits, I brew them myself. Barley as well as potatoes may be had
for the taking. Then, sometimes, the dog picks up a rabbit. Sometimes,
when we go down for potatoes, we light on a fowl or two; there's many a
one of them running wild among the ruins. As far as eating and drinking
goes, we never did better; and if I could forget the old cottage, and the
sight that met my eyes when I went back to it, I should do well enough,
but, night and day I am dreaming of it, and my heart is sore with longing
for vengeance."

"Why don't you join the army?" Walter asked. "There's plenty of room for
good men, and yesterday's affair has made some vacancies in my own troop.

"What do you say, lads? You would have a chance of crossing swords with
the Enniskilleners, and you could always come back here when the war is
over."

"What do you say, boys?" the man asked his companions. "I am just
wearying for a fight, and I could die contented, if I could but send a
few of those murdering villains to their place, before I go."

The other two men at once agreed. They talked well into the night, and
Walter heard many tales of the savage butchery of unoffending peasants,
by the men who professed to be fighting for religious liberty, which
shocked and sickened him.

It was arranged that they should start on the following morning. The men
said that they could guide him across country to Dundalk without
difficulty, and assured him that he would be little likely t