“Yes, Larry, I was intending to do so.  You don’t think there is any special occasion for it, do you?”

“I don’t know, your honour.  We hear tales of the rapparees burning every Protestant house in the district.  As long as the troop was here, av coorse the boys kept away; but there is a powerful lot of plunder in the house, and the news that the troop have gone will go through the country quick enough.  The boys have had enough to turn them into devils, with what they have gone through, and small blame to them if they take their chances when they find them.  We know, yer honour, that Mrs. Conyers and Miss Claire are well-nigh angels, and there is small fear that the people around will lift a finger agin them, in spite of having had their own homes burnt over their heads; but folks from a distance don’t know that, and the news that there is a rich Protestant house, all ready for sacking, will travel quick.  I hope your honour will get the ladies to move out of the place tomorrow, whether the ould pictures and things are all ready or not.”

“Do you think it is as serious as that, Larry?”

“Faith and I do, yer honour.  You don’t know how bitter the folks are!”

“But there cannot be any danger, Larry, as long as we are here.  The rapparees would never attack a house which has the general’s protection, and with an officer and some troopers of the king to guard it.”

“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.