e to have stabled the beast here. I intended to have gone on
foot to Croghan.'

'Which you cannot now. Do you know what English law is, lady?' cried he
fiercely. 'This pony and this carriage, if they had shelter here, are
confiscated to the landlord for his rent. It's little use to say _you_ owe
nothing to this owner of the soil; it's enough that they are found amongst
the chattels of his debtors.'

'I cannot believe this is law.'

'You can prove it--at the loss of your pony; and it is mercy and generous
dealing when compared with half the enactments our rulers have devised for
us. Follow me. I see the police have not yet come down. I will go on in
front and ask the way to Croghan.'

There was that sort of peril in the adventure now that stimulated Nina and
excited her; and as they stoutly wended their way through the crowd, she
was far from insensible to the looks of admiration that were bent on her
from every side.

'What are they saying?' asked she; 'I do not know their language.'

'It is Irish,' said he; 'they are talking of your beauty.'

'I should so like to follow their words,' said she, with the smile of one
to whom such homage had ever its charm.

'That wild-looking fellow, that seemed to utter an imprecation, has just
pronounced a fervent blessing; what he has said was, "May every glance of
your eye be a candle to light you to glory."'

A half-insolent laugh at this conceit was all Nina's acknowledgment of it.
Short greetings and good wishes were now rapidly exchanged between Donogan
and the people, as the little party made their way through the crowd--the
men standing bareheaded, and the women uttering words of admiration, some
even crossing themselves piously, at sight of such loveliness, as, to them,
recalled the ideal of all beauty.

'The police are to be here at one o'clock,' said Donogan, translating a
phrase of one of the bystanders.

'And is there anything for them to seize on?' asked she.

'No; but they can level the cabins,' cried he bitterly. 'We have no more
right to shelter than to food.'

Moody and sad, he walked along at the pony's head, and did not speak
another word till they had left the village far behind them.

Larry, as usual, had found something to interest him, and dropped behind in
the village, and they were alone.

A passing countryman, to whom Donogan addressed a few words in Irish, told
them that a short distance from Croghan they could stable the pony at a
small 's