ure of
giving them warning in time; and yet I do not think the people in the
cave slept through the night, and I should have been found out to a
certainty. Even now, I don't think they know who I am, and they still
believe they have got the young lord. Well, they may hang me in their
rage when they find out who I am, and it cannot be helped. Kathleen
will scarcely have failed in giving the notice I sent. But then, if
they kill me, oh, what grief for my poor mother. That is the bitterest
thing in the matter: for her sake, if I thought there was a chance of
escaping I would make the attempt; but if God thinks right to call me
out of the world, He knows what is best. Still something may occur by
which I may hope to escape, though I know these men about me are ready
for any bloody work. What fearful oaths I heard them swear, and we know
too well what dreadful things have been done in other parts of the
country. The young and the fair, and the old and the helpless, have
been murdered by their cruel hands. A fearful thing is this civil war.
I used not to think much of it once, but I do now. And oh, that sweet
young Lady Nora and her cousin, to think of the horrors to which they
may be exposed."

Such were the thoughts which passed rapidly through Dermot's brain in
spite of the danger to which he himself was exposed. He heard the
people as before speaking round him in the native Irish, but he took
good care to make no remarks; indeed, he felt sure that should he speak,
his voice alone might betray him. Had they indeed seen him in daylight
they might have suspected, in spite of the cloak which covered him, that
he was not the young lord. At length he knew by the appearance of the
country, and the expressions he heard uttered round him, that they were
drawing close to the castle, though they had arrived by a more inland
route than that which he usually took. He judged that some hundreds of
people comprised the force of rebels. They were armed in a variety of
ways, but a considerable number had muskets and pistols. He discovered
also that the two small field-pieces which he had seen in the cavern had
been brought with them. Not knowing the moderate powers of such pieces
of ordnance, he was afraid that the insurgents with them would batter
down the walls. This made him feel more alarmed than ever for the
safety of his friends.

The rebel force now drew up close round the castle, and a consultation
was held amon