; and in discharging my duty to my God
and my king, I am ready for any hazard or any fate. Name the service you
require, and if it lies within the compass of my wit or power, I will
fully and faithfully perform it. Have I said enough?'

'That is well, very well, my friend; you speak well, and manfully,'
replied the general. 'I want you to convey to the hands of General
Boisleau, now in the city of Limerick, a small written packet; there is
some danger, mark me, of your falling in with some outpost or straggling
party of the prince's army. If you are taken unawares by any of the
enemy you must dispose of the packet inside your person, rather than let
it fall into their hands--that is, you must eat it. And if they go to
question you with thumbscrews, or the like, answer nothing; let them
knock your brains out first.' In illustration, I suppose, of the latter
alternative, he knocked the ashes out of his pipe upon the table as he
uttered it.

'The packet,' he continued, 'you shall have to-morrow morning. Meantime
comfort yourself with food, and afterwards with sleep; you will want,
mayhap, all your strength and wits on the morrow.'

I applied myself forthwith to the homely fare which they had provided,
and I confess that I never made a meal so heartily to my satisfaction.

It was a beautiful, clear, autumn morning, and the bright beams of the
early sun were slanting over the brown heath which clothed the sides
of the mountain, and glittering in the thousand bright drops which the
melting hoar-frost had left behind it, and the white mists were lying
like broad lakes in the valleys, when, with my pedlar's pack upon my
back, and General Sarsfield's precious despatch in my bosom, I set
forth, refreshed and courageous.

As I descended the hill, my heart expanded and my spirits rose under
the influences which surrounded me. The keen, clear, bracing air of the
morning, the bright, slanting sunshine, the merry songs of the small
birds, and the distant sounds of awakening labour that floated up from
the plains, all conspired to stir my heart within me, and more like a
mad-cap boy, broken loose from school, than a man of sober years upon
a mission of doubt and danger, I trod lightly on, whistling and singing
alternately for very joy.

As I approached the object of my early march, I fell in with a
countryman, eager, as are most of his kind, for news.

I gave him what little I had collected, and professing great zeal for
the ki