demand our valuables; but if any were lying in wait in the
neighbourhood, they probably thought four well-armed men too formidable
to be assailed, and we proceeded towards our journey's end without
molestation. I had at first felt a sort of callousness about reaching
home, and should have been indifferent had any delay occurred; but as I
approached Castle Ballinahone I became more and more eager to be there,
and could scarcely restrain my feelings when I saw the towers rising
beyond the trees in the distance, and the Shannon shining brightly in
the rays of the setting sun. My uncle and I gave our horses the rein,
and our two attendants clattered after us. The gate of the park was
open, and as we dashed up the avenue at full speed, the sounds of our
horses' hoofs attracted the attention of the inmates of the castle. The
door was thrown open, and my mother and sisters, and Maurice and Denis
and my two brothers-in-law, appeared on the steps, down which the
younger boys came springing towards us; while from the servants' wing
out rushed a whole posse of men and girls and dogs,--tumbling over each
other, the dogs barking, the girls shrieking, and the men shouting with
delight, as they surrounded Larry, and half pulled him off his horse.
Dismounting, I sprang up the steps into my mother's arms, where she held
me for some time before she was willing to let me go. I received a
similar welcome from my sisters. "You see I have brought him back safe
after all," said the major, benignantly smiling. My hands were next
seized by my brothers and brothers-in-law, who wrung their fingers after
receiving the grips which I unconsciously bestowed upon them.

"And my father?" I asked, not seeing him.

"He is in the parlour," answered my mother in an altered tone; and she
led me in. He was seated in his wheelchair, a look of dull imbecility
on his countenance.

"What! are you Terence?" he asked in a quavering tone. "Come back from
the wars, eh? I suppose you are Terence, though I shouldn't have known
you. We will drink your health, though, at supper in whisky punch, if
he'll let me have it, for we can't afford claret now,--at least so he
says, and he knows better than I do."

I was much pained, but tried to conceal my feelings from my mother,
though my father's changed appearance haunted me, and prevented me from
being as happy as otherwise would have been the case. His state had
been that of many of his neighbours, whom he