ught on
your health."

"Tush, I'm as fresh as a boy this morning. Landlord, see that the
saddle is put on that horse I came into Rye with."

The landlord at once rushed off and gave the order, while I stood
there at my wit's end.

"Father Donovan," said I, "I'm in great need of haste at this moment,
and we must ride fast, so I'll just bid good-bye to you here at this
comfortable spot, and you'll sit down at your ease in that big
arm-chair."

"I'll do nothing of the kind, O'Ruddy. What's troubling you, man? and
why are you in such a hurry this morning, when you said nothing of it
yesterday?"

"Father, I said nothing of it yesterday, but sure I acted it. See how
we rode on and on in spite of everything, and did the whole journey
from London to Rye between breakfast and supper. Didn't that give you
a hint that I was in a hurry?"

"Well, it should have done, it should have done, O'Ruddy; still, I'll
go a bit of the way with you and not delay you."

"But we intend to ride very fast, Father."

"Ah, it's an old man you're thinking I'm getting to be. Troth, I can
ride as fast as any one of the three of you, and a good deal faster
than Paddy."

At this moment the landlord came bustling in.

"Your Reverence's horse is ready," he said.

And so there was nothing for it but to knock the old man down, which I
hadn't the heart to do. It is curious how stubborn some people are;
but Father Donovan was always set in his ways, and so, as we rode out
of Rye to the west, with Paddy and Jem following us, I had simply to
tell his Reverence all about it, and you should have seen the
consternation on his countenance.

"Do you mean to tell me you propose to take possession of another
man's house and fight him if he comes to claim his own?"

"I intend that same thing, your Reverence;" for now I was as stubborn
as the old gentleman himself, and it was not likely I was going to be
put off my course when I remembered the happiness that was ahead of
me; but there's little use in trying to explain to an aged priest what
a young man is willing to do for the love of the sweetest girl in all
the land.

"O'Ruddy," he said, "you'll be put in prison. It's the inside of a
gaol, and not the inside of a castle, you'll see. It's not down the
aisle of a church you'll march with your bride on your arm, but its
hobbling over the cobbles of a Newgate passage you'll go with manacles
on your legs. Take warning from me, my poor boy, who would be
h