"We hurried along, anxiously fearing every moment to see flames rise from
the castle. Fortunately, the soldiers were too busy in plundering to
notice our approach, and we pounced down upon them and seized them
unawares. They were stripping the place of everything worth carrying
away, before setting it on fire. We burst into the hall, and there was a
sight which filled my father and myself with anger and shame. Your
grandmother was standing erect, looking with dignity mingled with disdain
at my grandfather; while your mother, holding your brother's hands, stood
beside her. My grandfather was standing upon a chair; in his hand he held
a Bible, and was pouring out a string of denouncing texts at the ladies,
and was, at the moment we entered, comparing them to the wicked who had
fallen into a net.

"I don't think, Walter, his senses are quite right now. He is crazed with
religion and hate, and I believe, at the time, he fancied himself in the
meeting house. Anyhow, there he was, while two sergeants, who were
supposed to be in command of the troop, were sitting on a table, with a
flagon of wine between them, looking on with amusement. Their expression
changed pretty quickly, when we rushed in.

"It needed all my father's efforts to prevent the whole party being hung,
so furious were all the rescuers at the outrage upon the good ladies of
the castle. But my father pointed out to them that, although such a
punishment was well deserved, it would do harm rather than good to the
ladies. They had orders of protection from the lords justices; and he
should proceed at once, with four or five witnesses, to lay the matter
before the general at Dublin, and demand the punishment of the offenders.
But if the party took the law into their own hands, and meted out the
punishment the fellows deserved, the facts of the case would be lost