oured to impress upon the wandering mind of
the poor girl what she was to do, and then begged her to hasten off to
overtake Dermot. However, neither she nor Miss O'Reilly were aware of
the distance Dermot would have got before Kathleen could overtake him.

The mad girl went singing on as was her wont for some time, till
suddenly she became unusually silent. She had not gone far when she
heard the loud talking of a body of men approaching her.

"Those voices at this time of the evening bode no good," she said to
herself. "They are some of the rebels who they say are about the
country. I never loved such. I will hide and watch to see what they
are about."

She accordingly concealed herself among the rocks and uneven ground with
which the road was bounded. The tramp of feet approached, coming from
the direction of the castle, and she saw some men leading a pony on
which a lad was mounted, hurriedly proceeding towards the north.

From what she had heard from Miss O'Reilly, she at once concluded that
the person she had seen in the hands of the insurgents must be Dermot
himself.

"Now the next thing I have to do," she thought, "is to follow and try to
find out where they are taking him to. Surely they will not do him an
injury, but still they have no right to carry him off; of that I am
certain."

Gathering her cloak around her, she quickly followed the footsteps of
the party she had seen pass. She had to keep at a cautious distance,
lest in crossing any open space, she might have been discovered, but
where a person in their right mind might have hesitated, she went on
fearlessly. The road was rough and up and down hill, but she continued
her pursuit till the party suddenly came to a halt.

"Oh!" she said to herself; "I know the spot where they have gone to;
shall I go on, or shall I go back to Miss O'Reilly and tell her how I
have been defeated in fulfilling her directions?"

In spite of the distance she determined to follow the latter course.

The astonishment of Miss O'Reilly was very great when, at a late hour in
the evening, Kathleen appeared and told her what had befallen young
Dermot.

Miss O'Reilly instantly consulted her uncle, who fortunately was at
home.

"There is something wrong going forward, at all events," he observed.
"But why the rebels should have made Dermot prisoner is more than I can
say. However, perhaps you can persuade Kathleen to go back to the cave
and endeavour to release hi