ave thought as you do; and of course,
still more if you had been born in a Catholic country like Italy, where
you would never have heard of Protestantism, and I had been born in a
Protestant country like Holland, where I should never have had a chance
of becoming a Catholic. Very few people ever change their religion. They
just live and die as they have been born and educated."

"It seems so," John said after a pause; "but the question is too deep for
us."

"Quite so," Walter laughed, "and I don't want to argue it.

"Well, when are you going to start?"

"I am off tomorrow morning. My father has an acquaintance in Dublin who
is starting for Derry, and I am to go in his charge."

For another hour the boys chatted together, and then, with mutual
promises of writing regularly, whenever they had the chance, they said
goodbye; and the following morning John started with his father to
Dublin, and next day journeyed north towards Derry.

Chapter 3: The King In Ireland.

On the 12th of November, a vessel arrived in Dublin with the news that
William of Orange had landed at Torbay on the 5th. The news created the
wildest excitement. The Protestants, who had been deeply depressed, by
the apparent intention of James to hand back, to their original owners,
the land which had been wrested from them, now took heart and began
openly to arm. Upon the other hand, the Catholics felt that, if William
and the Whigs succeeded to the chief power in England, their faith, their
remaining property, and their lives were alike menaced, and they, too,
prepared to fight to the last for all they held dear.

Walter rode several times with his father into Dublin. The streets
presented a strange spectacle. They were crowded with Protestant
fugitives from the country districts. These had forsaken all, and flocked
into Dublin, fearing that the Irish would retaliate for past grievances
by a general massacre. The banks of the Liffey were crowded by these
fugitives, who, with tears and cries, besought the captains of the
vessels lying there to give them passage to England. All sorts of rumours
of bloodshed, massacre, and destruction circulated through the city. The
Protestants in the north were said to have fallen upon the Catholic
population, and to have put them to the sword, while in the south and
west it was said the Catholics had taken the same measures against the
Protestants. Both reports were equally false, but they were generally
belie