owing,
as the report went, to the outrages against property which were said to
have been committed by Shawn-na-Middogue and his rapparees. During his
sporting excursions in the open day, however, he never knew him to go
armed in this manner before, because, on such occasions he had always
seen his pistols and dagger hanging against the wall, where he usually
kept them. On this occasion, however, Woodward went like a man who felt
apprehensive of some premeditated violence on the part of an enemy.
Judging, therefore, from what he had seen, as well as from what he
conjectured, Barney, as we said, resolved to watch him closely.

In the meantime, the state of poor Alice Goodwin's health was
deplorable. The dreadful image of Harry Woodward, or, rather, the
frightful power of his Satanic spirit, fastened upon her morbid and
diseased imagination with such force, that no effort of her reason could
shake it off. That dreadful eye was perpetually upon her and before her,
both asleep and awake, and, lest she might have any one point on which
to rest for comfort, the idea of Charles Lindsay attachment to Grace
Davoren would come over her, only to supersede one misery by
introducing another. In this wretched state she was when the calamitous
circumstances, which we are about to relate, took place.

Barney Casey was a good deal engaged that evening, for indeed he was a
general servant in his master's family, and was expected to put a hand
to, and superintend, everything. He was, therefore, out of the way for
a time, having gone to Rathfillan on a message for his mistress, whom he
cursed in his heart for having sent him. He lost little time, however,
in discharging it, and was just on his return when he saw Harry Woodward
entering the old boreen we have described; and, as the night was rather
dark, he resolved to ascertain--although he truly suspected--the
object of this nocturnal adventure. He accordingly dogged him at a safe
distance, and, in accordance with his suspicions, he found that Woodward
directed his steps to the clump of alders which he had, on their return
that day, pointed out to his brother. Here he (Barney) ensconced himself
in a close thicket, in order to watch the event. Woodward had not been
many minutes there when Grace Davoren joined him. She seemed startled,
and surprised, and disappointed, as Casey could perceive by her manner,
or rather by the tones of her voice; but, whatever the cause of her
disappointment ma