“Captain Davenant,” he said, “I thank you most sincerely, on the part of myself, my wife and son, and, I may say, of my father, too, although at present he may not realize the kindness of your offer.  I do not think it likely that, if James Stuart prevails, and Ireland is rent from England, we shall avail ourselves of your offer, for we have more than sufficient of this world’s goods to remove to England, and there settle ourselves and our son, for assuredly Ireland would be no place where a Protestant could dwell in peace and quietness.  Nevertheless, I thank you heartily, and shall ever gratefully bear in mind the promise you have made, and the fact that, although you have the power to turn us from our home, you have stayed from doing so.  There has been much wrong done on both sides; and, from a boy, when I have seen you ride into or from your home, I have felt that I and mine wronged you, by being the possessors of your father’s lands.”

“They were the spoil of battle,” Zephaniah broke in fiercely.

“Yes, they were the spoil of battle,” his son repeated; “but there are limits, even to the rights of conquerors.  I have read history, and I know that nowhere but in Ireland did conquerors ever dispossess whole peoples, and take possession of their lands.”

“The Israelites took the land of Canaan,” Zephaniah interrupted.

“I am speaking of modern wars, father.  For centuries, no such act of wholesale spoliation was ever perpetrated; and considering, as I do, that the act was an iniquitous one, although we have benefited by it, I consider the offer which Captain Davenant has made to us to be a noble one.

“I have to thank you, sir, also, for your kindness to my son—­a kindness which doubtless saved his life, as well as that of many others in Londonderry; and believe me that, whatever comes of this horrible war, I and mine will never forget the kindnesses we have received at your hands.”

“The affair was my son’s, rather than mine,” Captain Davenant said; “but I was glad to be able to assist him in aiding your brave boy.  He is a noble fellow, and you have every reason to be proud of him.”

“I must add my thanks to those of my husband,” Hannah said, coming out from the house, having listened to the conversation through an open window.  “We had suffered so, until your son brought us news of John, two days since.  It is strange, indeed, that your son should have been the means of saving one of a household whom he cannot but have learnt to regard as the usurpers of his father’s rights.  It was but last night I was reading of Jonathan and David, and it seemed to me that, assuredly, the same spirit that they felt for each other was in our sons.”

“The boys are very fond of each other, Mrs. Whitefoot, and I am glad of it.  They are both manly fellows, and there is no reason why the feuds of the fathers should descend to the children.”

With a cordial goodbye, Captain Davenant rode off.