I trudged along through the storm, turning from time to time to see
that I was not pursued; for as the day waned, my fear of being overtaken
increased, and in every moaning of the wind and every rustle of
the branches I thought I heard Tony Basset summoning me to stop and
surrender myself his prisoner. This dread gradually gave way, as the
loneliness of the road was unbroken by a single traveller; the wild
half-tilled fields presented no living object far or near; the thick
rain swooped along the swampy earth, and, in its misty darkness, shut
out all distant prospect; and a sadder picture eye never rested on.

At length I reached the ruined church Darby spoke of, and following the
track he indicated, soon came out upon the boreen, where for the first
time some little shelter existed.

It was only at nightfall, when fatigue and hunger had nearly obtained
the victory over me, that I saw, at some short distance in front, the
long roof of a well-thatched cabin. As I came nearer, I could perceive
that it contained several windows, and that the door was sheltered by a
small porch,--marks of comfort by no means common among the neighboring
farmers; lights moved here and there through the cabin; and the voices
of people driving in the cows, and the barking of dogs, were welcome
sounds to my ear. A half-clad urchin, of some seven years old, armed
with a huge bramble, was driving a flock of turkeys before him as I
approached; but instead of replying to my question, "If this were Ned
Malone's," the little fellow threw down his weapon, and ran for his
life. Before I could recover from my surprise at his strange conduct,
the door opened, and a large, powerful-looking man, in a long blue
coat, appeared. He carried a musket in his hand, which, as soon as he
perceived the figure before him, he laid down within the porch, calling
out to some one inside,--

"Go back, Maurice,--it's nothing. Well, sir," continued he, addressing
me, "do you want anybody hereabouts?"

"Is this Ned Malone's, may I ask?" said I.

"It is," answered he; "and I am Ned Malone, at your service. And what
then?"

There was something in the cold, forbidding tone in which he spoke, as
well as in the hard severity of his look, that froze all my resolution
to ask a favor, and I would gladly have sought elsewhere for shelter for
the night had I known where to look.

The delay this indecision on my part created, caused him to repeat
his question, while he fixed h