ry
Joy M'Cracken. First year of Liberty, 6th June, 1798."

"That paper was handed to General Clavering last night," said Lord
Dunseveric, "and half a dozen more copies were sent to other officers.
Is it any use going on now?"

"My lord," said Neal, "I have heard things--I have seen things. Last
night I myself was stripped for flogging. They have set a price on my
head. I put it to you as a gentleman, as a just man and a brave, would
it be right to go back now?"

"It is no use going on."

"But would you go back? Would you desert friends who did not desert you?
Would you leave them?"

"A wise man does not struggle against the inevitable, Neal."

"But a man of honour, my lord. What would a man of honour do?"

"A man of honour," said Lord Dunseveric, "would act as you are going to
do."

"Farewell, my lord, I go with an easy mind now, if I go to my death, for
I have your approval."

"Neal Ward," said Lord Dunseveric, "I have known you since you were a
boy, and I've loved you next to my own children. I don't say you are
acting wrongly or dishonourably, but you and your friends are acting
foolishly. You cannot win. You and hundreds of innocent people must
suffer, and Ireland, Neal, Ireland will come to the worse, to the
old subjection, to the old bondage, to the old misery, through your
foolishness. I say this, not to dissuade you from going on, for I think
that you must go on now, but in order that when you look back on it all
afterwards you may remember that there were true friends of Ireland who
were not on your side."

Neal bent over Lord Dunseveric's hand and kissed it solemnly.

"I have known two great and good men," he said. "You, my lord, and one
whose name you might count contemptible, James Hope, the weaver, of
Templepatrick. I think myself happy that I have had the goodwill of
both. And, my lord, I think Ireland the most unhappy country in the
world because to-day these two men will be in arms against each other."

He sobbed. Then, lest he should betray more emotion, went quickly from
the inn.

He found his uncle waiting for him outside the church.

"Well, Neal," he said, "how have you sped? You have a basket; I hope it
is full. See here, I have four loaves of bread. The baker man would have
denied me. He suspected me, but I had my answer for him. I told him I
was groom to a great lord who was staying in the inn. I made free with
the name of your friend, Lord Dunseveric. I told him that if he refus