“Sure and I did,” Larry said.  “I was sitting on a doorstep, watching the house, when I saw the sodgers coming along.  They turned up from a side street, and were so close that I saw I could not get across and get the door opened in time to give you the alarm.  Then they began to knock at the door, and for a bit I felt so wake that I could not move.  Then the crowd began to gather, and then I said to myself, The master will try to shlip out at the back of the house.  So I went round, but I found the thieves of the world waiting for ye there.  But I was sure ye weren’t the one to let them take ye widout a struggle for it.  So I moved a bit away, and jist waited.

“The time seemed long, when on a suddint I heard the sodgers sing out, and then fire, and set out to run.  I never doubted it was you, and so off I went behindt them, as hard as I could tare.  I wasn’t long in coming up to them, and at first I thought ye would get clean away.  Then my heart fell, when I saw those villains attempt to seize ye, but, when I thought it was all over, ye turned sharp off and made for the river.  I was with the first of them to get there, and I ran, accidental, against the first sodger who got his musket to his shoulder, and there was no saying where the ball went to.  He cursed me for a clumsy baste, and would have knocked me down, but he was in too great a hurry to load again.

“I saw the bullets strike the water, close to you, when you came up again.  I saw you look round, and guessed ye was thinking what was the best thing to do.  Then we saw no more of ye.  I didn’t think you had been hit, for I saw you go down regular, as if you were diving in the sea for pleasure; and not sharp, as you would have done if a bullet had hit you.  I guessed as you were meaning to swim up the stream, and I did the only thing I could to stop them from following up, by shouting that I saw ye, and throwing a big stone into the water close to where I had seen your head before, knowing that, by that time, ye must be nigh a hundred yards up.

“The fools didn’t stop to think, but they took to throwing stones, and firing as hard as they could, and by the time they had done I knew, if ye were alive, ye must be nigh a quarter of a mile up the river.  Some of them did run up, and I kept with them, but sorrah a glimpse of ye did we get.  At last, everyone made sure that you were kilt entirely, and went their ways.

“I went off to our lodgings, but took good care not to go in.  And it was well I didn’t, for, half an hour later, a troop of sodgers came up, and some of them went in.

“They were led by that black villain who used to come wid messages from Mr. O’Brian, and I have no doubt it was he who set the sodgers upon you.  Anyhow, they didn’t find much there, but four of them waited till morning inside, the others all going away, so that, if you had got out of the river, they might catch ye in a trap.

“I waited till they had left this morning, thinking, I suppose, that it was no use to stay longer, and then started to see if your honour were here.