ty. There are warrants out against all the men named in the
list. The authorities are in earnest this time."

The tone in which he said this, coming from a man who had paltered with
treason for years, struck me as contemptible; but I had no time just
then to let him see what I felt.

"I will take care of myself," said I; "and your honour will do well to
remember what I said about Tim. When the reckoning for all this
business comes, it will stand you in good stead." And not waiting to
hear his reply, I went off to the stables.

Martin, whom the reader will remember, and who, despite his connection
with the marauders and his bad odour with the police, continued to
retain his place in his honour's service, was nowhere to be found. He
had been absent, said the boy, since the afternoon, when he had taken
off Tara for exercise.

I was obliged, therefore, to put up with an inferior animal, and to
saddle him myself. But I was too impatient to be off to allow of any
further delay.

"At what hour is the tide full?" I asked of one of the servants.

"Half-an-hour after midnight," was the reply.

As he spoke, the clock in the hall struck half-past nine.

"In three hours," said I to myself, as I galloped down the avenue, "the
Dutchman at Malin weighs anchor."

It was well for me I was no stranger to the rough, mountainous road I
had to travel, for the night was pitch dark, and scarcely a soul was
afoot at that late hour. I did, indeed, encounter a patrol of troopers
near the Black Hill, who ordered me to halt and dismount and give an
account of myself. But his honour's passport satisfied them, as it did
the sentry who challenged me on entering the little town of Carndonagh.
Thence to Malin it is but two leagues; but my wretched beast was so
spent that, unless I wished to leave it on the road, I was compelled to
take it most of the way at a foot's pace; so that when at last I pulled
up before the little inn at Malin, it was on the stroke of midnight.

"Faith, Mr Gorman's fond of sending messengers," said the landlord.
"There was another of his here two hours since."

"What!" I exclaimed, springing up from the bench at which I was
partaking of a hurried supper.

"Ay; he came with a message for the young lady up yonder at Mr
Shannon's."

"What sort of man was he?"

"Much like yourself--a common-looking man, with a shaven face and a nose
that turns up."

"Did he ride an iron-grey mare?" said I.

"Faith, a b