d not. He turned instead on Captain Twinely.

"Let me tell you, sir, that you're a damned idiot, an incompetent
officer, a besotted fool, and your men are a lot of cowardly loons.
You had this infernal young rebel safe and you let him go. You not only
allowed him to walk off, but you actually provided him with a suit of
clothes to go in. You're the cause of all the trouble. Get your troop
to horse. Scour the country for him. Don't leave a house that you don't
search, nor a bed that you don't run your sword through. Don't leave a
dung-heap without raking it, or a haystack that you don't scatter. Get
that man back for me, wherever he hides himself, or, by God, I'll have
you shot for neglect of duty in time of war, and your damned yeomen
buried alive in the same grave with you."

The general was still bent on teaching the Irish to know their masters
and making good his boast of reducing them to the tameness of "gelt
cats." With Captain Twinely, at least, he seemed likely to succeed.

"I can imagine, Maurice," said Lord Dun-severic, when they were alone
together again, "that Captain Twinely and his men have at last got a job
to suit them. Sticking swords through old wives feather beds is safer
work than sticking them through rebels. Scattering haystacks will be
pleasanter than scattering pikemen. Raking dung heaps will, I suppose,
be an entirely congenial occupation."

His tone changed, He spoke rapidly and seriously.

"You will ride with me as far as Belfast. From there you must find some
means of communicating with the captain of that Yankee brig of which you
told me. If necessary, go yourself to Glasgow and find the man. Pay him
what he asks and arrange that he lies off Dunseveric and picks up Neal.
You must then go home and see to it yourself that Neal gets safe on
board. It may not be easy, for the yeomen will be after him; but it has
got to be done. I go to Dublin as I said. I shall have some trouble
in settling this business of yours. It really was an audacious
proceeding--your rescue of the prisoner. It will take me all my time
to get it hushed up. Besides, I must use my influence to prevent bad
becoming worse in this unfortunate country of ours. By the way, did you
make any arrangement for the return of Captain Twinely's uniform when
Neal had finished with it?"

"No, I never thought of that."

"You ought to have thought of it. Poor Captain Twinely looks very odd in
the inn-keeper's clothes, which do not fit