ter, it's meself could easily make a
boat, with some osiers and the skin of that bullock we had given us for
the rations of the troops today."

"Send a letter, Larry! Who should I be sending a letter to?"

"Sure yer honour knows better than me. I thought maybe you would be
liking to let the young lady know how we're getting on now, and to find
out whether her father has come home, and how things are going. Yer
honour will excuse me, but it just seemed natural that you should be
wishing to send a line; and a sweeter young lady never trod the sod."

Walter could not help laughing at the gleam of quiet humour in Larry's
face.

"I don't know, lad. You have pretty well guessed my thoughts; but it
can't be. The opposite bank will be swarming with William's men--it would
be a most dangerous business. No, it's not to be thought of."

"Very well, yer honour, it's just as you like; but you have only got to
hand me a bit of paper, and give me a wink of your eye, and I will do it.
As to William's sodgers, it's little I fear them; and if all one hears of
their doings be true, and I had a pretty young creature a mile away from
me, with those blackguards round about her, it's anxious I should be for
a line from her hand;" and Larry got down from his seat, and began to
walk away towards the village.

Walter stood silent for a moment.

"Wait, Larry," he said.

Larry turned, with a look of surprise upon his face.

"Come here," Walter said impatiently. "Of course I am anxious--though I
don't know how you could have guessed it."

"Sure yer honour," Larry said with an innocent look, "when a gentleman
like yourself is for ever walking and riding with a purty colleen, it
don't need much guessing to suppose that you would be worrying after her,
with such creatures as the Northerners and the furreners in her
neighbourhood."

"And you seriously think you could take a letter across to her, Larry?"

"Sure and I could, yer honour. The nights are dark, and I could get
across the river widout a sowl being the wiser, and make my way to the
stables, and give it to one of the boys, who will put it in the hands of
Bridget, Miss Claire's own maid; and I could go back, next night, for the
answer."

"But if you can do it, I can," Walter said.

"What would be the good, yer honour? It's only the outside of the house
you would see, and not the young lady. Besides, there's a lot more risk
in your doing it than there is with me. You are an offic