“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 sight of.  There would be a cry of vengeance for the murder, as it would be called, of a party of soldiers, and it would serve as an excuse for harrying the whole district with fire and sword.

“Having at last persuaded the angry tenants and peasantry to lay aside their project of vengeance, my father went to the soldiers, who, tied hand and foot, were expecting nothing short of death.  He ordered all their pistols and ammunition to be taken away, and their bonds to be loosed; then told them that their escape had been a narrow one, and that, with great difficulty, he had persuaded those who had captured them while engaged in deeds of outrage and plunder to spare them; but that a complaint would at once be made before the military authorities, and the law would deal with them.  Finally, they were permitted to mount and ride off, after having been closely examined to see that they were taking with them none of the plunder of the house.

“Everything was then carefully replaced as they had found it; and my father at once rode off, with six of the leading tenants—­three Protestants and three Catholics—­and laid a complaint before the general.  The latter professed himself much shocked, and lamented the impossibility of keeping strict discipline among the various regiments stationed in the towns.  However, he went down with them at once to the barracks of the regiment, ordered them to be formed up, and asked my father if he could identify the culprits.