back to us. I never thought of that. I was most afraid you would go for
the opposite shore, and there were plenty had gathered there, ready to
seize you. I didn't think I could have missed you, if you'd kept on in
the middle, and I have been puzzled altogether as to what could have
become of you, if ye were really alive.

"I have got some bread in my bundle here, and a bottle of spirits, and
you had better have a bite and a sup before we go on, for it's pretty
nigh as white as a ghost ye are."

The meal seemed to put new life and strength into Walter, and, after its
conclusion, he was ready to step out again with fresh energy. They
thought it better at once to leave the road, and tramp across the
country. By so doing they avoided all parties of the English troops, and
reached the Irish army without adventure. Walter at once reported himself
to General Sarsfield, and related all that had taken place in Dublin.

"You have done excellently, Mr. Davenant, and your escape from capture
was an extraordinary one. Unfortunately, the betrayal of what was doing,
and the arrest of our friends, is likely to upset all the plans you had
arranged."

"I hope not, sir," Walter said. "I know that they were all careful to
have no written documents, for it was always possible that the houses of
the Catholics might be searched."

"That may be so," the general said; "but I fear that this traitor will
have managed to overhear some of the conversation; and the fact of their
meeting, and of your escape, will in itself tell against them
sufficiently to ensure their being kept in prison, at any rate for a