and I was to ask for Mrs. Rooney, who lived with her cousin, Larry
Callaghan, a ship's carpenter, in Middle Lane, which I should find
by the river bank."

"Well, that is something to go by, Mike. Of course, she may have
moved away long since; but if her cousin is a ship's carpenter, it
is not likely that he would have left the neighbourhood."

"I wonder your honour never asked about the Kennedys from some of
the officers who were at the siege?"

"I did not like to do so. The colonel came to the conclusion that
I must be the son of Murroch Kennedy, who came out soon after
Limerick surrendered, and was killed at Breda two or three months
after he joined the brigade. The officers agreed with the colonel
that this gentleman was probably my father, and of course I was
contented that it should be supposed so, and therefore I asked no
questions about other Kennedys. Of late, however, I have been
worried over the matter. In the Irish regiments in Spain, as
elsewhere, were a number of officers belonging to good old Irish
families, and though I have got on well enough with them--in the
first place as Berwick's aide-de-camp, and afterwards as on the
staff of the generals here--I could see that when, in answer to
their question, it was evident I knew little or nothing of my
family, there was a sort of coolness in their manner which I could
quite understand, counting back their ancestors, as they did,
pretty nearly to the flood. At present, it does not make any
difference to me personally, one way or the other, but I am
convinced that if, by chance, when I get older, I should fall in
love with the daughter of an officer of one of these old families,
he would not for a moment listen to me, until I could give him
some proofs that I had a right to the name I bear, or at any rate
came of a good family. Certainly, at present, I could not assure
him on either point. I only know that I have always been called
Kennedy, and that it was under that name that I was committed to
the care of Father O'Leary. That proves nothing more than that it
is the name by which John O'Carroll wished me to be called; and it
is as likely as not--indeed a good deal more likely--that it was
not the true one."

"Well, at any rate, your honour, you have made the name of Desmond
Kennedy well known and liked, both among the Irish and French
officers, for it is no slight thing that an officer in an infantry
regiment should be taken on the staff of the Duke of