es of your countrymen.'

'And if he be not,' whispered the other, in a voice which, although low,
I could still detect, 'why should we give him up?'

'Hush, Tom, be quiet,' replied the elder, 'let him plead for himself.'

'Let me see the newspaper,' said I, endeavouring to seem calm and
collected; and, taking it at the place he pointed out, I read the
heading in capitals, 'Capitulation of General Humbert and his whole
Force.' I could see no more. I could not trace the details of so
horrible a disaster, nor did I ask to know by what means it occurred.
My attitude and air of apparent occupation, however, deceived the
other; and the elder, supposing that I was engaged in considering the
paragraph, said, 'You'll see the Government proclamation on the other
side--a general amnesty to all under the rank of officers in the rebel
army, who give up their arms within six days. The French to be treated
as prisoners of war.'

'Is he too late to regain the fleet?' whispered the younger.

'Of course he is. They are already hull down; besides, who's to assist
his escape, Tom? You forget the position he stands in.'

'But I do not forget it,' answered I; 'and you need not be afraid that
I will seek to compromise you, gentlemen. Tell me where to find the
nearest justice of the peace, and I will go and surrender myself.'

'It is your wisest and best policy,' said the elder. 'I am not in the
commission, but a neighbour of mine is, and lives a few miles off, and,
if you like, we 'll accompany you to his house.'

I accepted the offer, and soon found myself descending the steep path
of the mountain in perfect good-fellowship with the two strangers. It
is likely enough, if they had taken any peculiar pains to obliterate the
memory of our first meeting, or if they had displayed any extraordinary
efforts of conciliation, that I should have been on my guard against
them; but their manners, on the contrary, were easy and unaffected
in every respect. They spoke of the expedition sensibly and
dispassionately, and while acknowledging that there were many things
they would like to see altered in the English rule of Ireland, they were
very averse from the desire of a foreign intervention to rectify them.

I avowed to them that we had been grossly deceived. That all the
representations made to us depicted Ireland as a nation of soldiers,
wanting only arms and military stores to rise as a vast army. That the
peasantry were animated by one spirit