," said a man who seemed to be the chief of the party; "and,
if I might make so bould, who are you, yourselves?"

"French officers; this is my colonel," said I, pointing to Charost, who
was wiping his forehead and face after his late exertion.

The information, far from producing the electric effect of pleasure I
had anticipated, was received with a coldness, almost amounting to fear,
and they spoke eagerly together for some minutes in Irish.

"Our allies evidently don't like the look of us," said Charost,
laughing; "and if the truth must be told, I own the disappointment is
mutual."

"'Tis too late you come sir," said the peasant, addressing the colonel,
while he removed his hat, and assumed an air of respectful deference.
"'Tis all over with poor Ireland, this time."

"Tell him," said Charost, to whom I translated the speech, "that it's
never too late to assert a good cause: that we have got arms for twenty
thousand, if they have but hands and hearts to use them. Tell him that a
French army is now lying in that bay yonder, ready and able to
accomplish the independence of Ireland."

I delivered my speech as pompously as it was briefed to me; and,
although I was listened to in silence, and respectfully, it was plain my
words carried little or no conviction with them. Not caring to waste
more of our time in such discourse, I now inquired about the country--in
what directions lay the high roads, and the relative situations of the
towns of Killala, Castlebar, and Ballina, the only places of comparative
importance in the neighborhood. I next asked about the landing-places,
and learned that a small fishing-harbor existed, not more than half a
mile from the spot where we had landed, from which a little country road
lay to the village of Palmerstown. As to the means of transporting
baggage, guns, and ammunition, there were few horses to be had, but with
money we might get all we wanted; indeed, the peasants constantly
referred to this means of success, even to asking "what the French would
give a man that was to join them?" If I did not translate the demand
with fidelity to my colonel, it was really that a sense of shame
prevented me. My whole heart was in the cause; and I could not endure
the thought of its being degraded in this way. It was growing duskish,
and the colonel proposed that the peasant should show us the way to the
fishing-harbor he spoke of, while some other of the party might go round
to our boat, and di