troop started from the camp. No signs of
any parties of the enemy were seen during their ride, and after
proceeding some five-and-twenty miles, they dismounted, and with a hearty
farewell from Captain Davenant, and a cheer from the men, they started on
foot.

The letters of which Walter was the bearer had been written on very small
pieces of paper, and had been sewn up inside the collar of his coat. His
instructions, as to the persons on whom he was to call, had been learned
by heart and the paper destroyed. Larry was in high glee at taking part
in the adventure, and laughed and jested as they made their way along.

They avoided the main roads running to Waterford and Dublin, as they
would probably have fallen in with parties of troops journeying west, and
might have been shot out of pure wantonness, besides being exposed to the
risk of being asked awkward questions. They slept at peasants' houses,
where they were everywhere hospitably received, as soon as their hosts
assured themselves that they were Catholics. Larry was the principal
spokesman, for although Walter, like all the Catholic gentry, spoke the
native language, he was not so fluent as his follower, to whom it came
naturally, as, although the peasantry in the neighbourhood of Dublin were
all able to speak English, they always conversed in Irish among
themselves. Larry gave out that he and his companion had been serving in
the army, and had obtained leave to pay a visit to their native village,
near Dublin, for the winter.

"I doubt whether you will find much of it standing," one of their hosts
said, "for I hear that county Wicklow, and all round Dublin, has been
wasted by them foreign devils in Dublin. The curse of Cromwell be upon
them! But we'll be aven wid them yet. They say next spring a big French
army is coming, and they will set the Germans running so that they won't
stop till the last man gets on board ship, and ould Ireland is free from
them, the murthering haythens. But you must be careful, lads, and not let
out to a sowl that ye have been wid the boys in the west, or it's short
work they would make of you."

In every case they were asked questions about sons or relations with the
army, and were often able to give news as to where the regiments to which
they belonged were stationed, and of the part they had taken during the
last year's fighting. News travelled slowly, and was circulated
principally by means of travelling peddlers, who hawked thei