inst surprise.

It was not until the last of the peasants had filed off, and the space
before the house had resumed its normal aspect--but for once without
its beggars--that the gentry began to make their way in the same
direction. The buckeens were the first to go. Uncle Ulick, with the
Spanish officer and his men, formed the next party. The O'Beirnes, with
Sir Donny and Timothy Burke and a priest or two of a superior order,
were not long behind them. The last to leave--and they left the house
with no other guardians than a cook-maid or two--were the Admiral and
the Bishop, honourably escorted, as became their rank, by their host
and hostess.

Freed from the wrangling and confusion which the presence of the others
bred, Flavia regained her serenity as she walked. There was nothing,
indeed, in the face of nature, in the mist and the dark day, and the
moisture that hung in beads on thorn and furze, to cheer her. But she
drew her spirits from a higher source, and, sanguine and self-reliant,
foreseeing naught but success, stepped proudly along beside the Bishop,
who found, perhaps, in her presence and her courage a make-weight for
the gloom of the day.

"You are sure," he said, smiling, "that we shall not lose our way?"

"Ah! and I am sure," she answered, "I could take you blindfold."

"The mist----"

"It stands, my lord, for the mist overhanging this poor land, which our
sun shall disperse."

"God grant it!" he said--"God grant it, indeed, my daughter!" But, do
what he would, he spoke without fervour.

They passed along the lake-edge, catching now and then the shimmer of
water on their right. Thence they ascended the steep path that led up
the glen of the waterfall to the level of the platform on which the old
tower stood. Leaving this on the right--and only to an informed eye was
it visible--they climbed yet a little higher, and entered a deep
driftway that, at the summit of the gorge, clove its way between the
mound behind the tower and the hill on their left, and so penetrated
presently to the valley of the Carraghalin. The mist was thinner here,
the nature of the ground was more perceptible, and they had not
proceeded fifty yards along the sunken way before Cammock, who was
leading, in the company of The McMurrough, halted.

"A fine place for a stand," he said, looking about him with a soldierly
eye. "And better for an ambush. Especially on such a morning as this,
when you cannot see a man five paces away."