"It's meself would not answer for them," Larry said, shaking his head.
"The boys are just disperate, and would care nothing for the protection,
unless there were force to back it. They think that, as all the Catholics
have been robbed by the Protestants, it's only fair that they should get
their turn now; and, if I were your honour, I would lay all my plans out
tonight, how to get away and the rest of it, just as if you were assured
they would come before the morning."

"Why, you have heard nothing certain, Larry?"

"I have not, or I would tell your honour at once; but I know what the
people think and feel, and I know that the rapparees have been plundering
and destroying every Protestant house around, and they will guess that
the ladies will be moving, now that the troop is gone. Besides, won't
they have heard that the news has gone round, for waggons to come to take
away the things?"

The earnestness with which Larry spoke convinced Walter that the danger
was serious. Larry was not given to magnify danger, and usually treated
all risks with carelessness and indifference. Walter knew that he would
gather, from the stablemen and the people who brought in provisions, much
more as to the state of popular feeling in the country than he was likely
to know, and he accordingly went down to dinner grave and preoccupied.

Mrs. Conyers soon noticed the change in his manner, and, as soon as the
servants had retired, asked him if he had received any bad news.

"No," he said, trying to speak lightly. "My boy Larry has been trying to
scare me about the rapparees, and, although I do not think that there is
any danger to be apprehended from them, I do think that it would be just