Orange and Green eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 349 pages of information about Orange and Green.

Orange and Green eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 349 pages of information about Orange and Green.

“I could not think of disturbing you in that manner,” Captain Davenant said.  “I myself have a wife and mother alone at home, and will gladly treat you with the same courtesy which I trust they will receive.  Allow me, in the first place, to introduce to you my lieutenant, Mr. O’Moore, and my cornet, who is also my son, Walter.  I see that you have extensive stables and outbuildings.  I am sure that my men, who are all good fellows, and many of them the sons of farmers, will make themselves very comfortable in these.  I myself, and my two officers, will quarter ourselves in the gardener’s cottage you speak of.”

“You are good, indeed, sir,” Mrs. Conyers said gratefully; “but I could not think of allowing you to do that, and shall indeed be pleased, if you and your officers will take up your residence here as my guests.”

“I thank you kindly; but that I could not do.  My men will be well content with the outhouses, if they see that we are content with the cottage; but they might not be so, if they saw that we took up our quarters in the house.  Therefore, if you will allow me, I will carry out my own plan; but I need not say that we shall be very pleased to visit you in the house, at such times as may be agreeable to you.”

After expressing their grateful thanks, Mrs. Conyers and her daughter withdrew into the house.  Captain Davenant then addressed a few words to his men.

“The house will not hold you all, lads, and there are only ladies here, and I am sure you would not wish to disturb and annoy them by crowding their house.  Therefore, I have arranged that you shall take up your quarters in the outhouses, and that we shall occupy a little cottage on the grounds.  I hope, lads, that, for the honour of the country and the cause, all will behave as peacefully and quietly as if in our own homes.  It would be a poor excuse that, because William’s soldiers are behaving like wild beasts, we should forget the respect due to lonely women.”

A fortnight was spent here pleasantly for all.  The first alarm past, Mrs. Conyers felt safer than she had done for months.  Ever since the troubles had began, she had felt the loneliness of her position as a Protestant, and she would have, long before, made her way with her daughter to Dublin, had it not been that she thought that, so long as she continued in the house, it might be respected by the Catholic peasantry, while, were she to desert it, it would probably be plundered, perhaps burned to the ground.  Still, the position was a very trying one, especially since the Jacobite army began to gather in force round Limerick.

She now felt that her troubles were comparatively over.  The troops caused no annoyance, and she heard but little of them, while she found in Captain Davenant and his officers pleasant guests.  The troops, on their part, were well satisfied.  Mrs. Conyers gave instructions that they were to be supplied with all they needed, and their rations of bread and meat were supplemented with many little comforts and luxuries from the house.

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Project Gutenberg
Orange and Green from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.