“We had a good time of it, yer honour,” he said presently.

Walter turned round sharply, for he had not heard him approach.

“We had, Larry,” he said, with a smile.  “We shall find it rougher work now.”

“We shall, yer honour.

“I was thinking to myself,” he said, confidentially, “that if you might be wanting to send a bit of a letter, it’s meself could easily make a boat, with some osiers and the skin of that bullock we had given us for the rations of the troops today.”

“Send a letter, Larry!  Who should I be sending a letter to?”

“Sure yer honour knows better than me.  I thought maybe you would be liking to let the young lady know how we’re getting on now, and to find out whether her father has come home, and how things are going.  Yer honour will excuse me, but it just seemed natural that you should be wishing to send a line; and a sweeter young lady never trod the sod.”

Walter could not help laughing at the gleam of quiet humour in Larry’s face.

“I don’t know, lad.  You have pretty well guessed my thoughts; but it can’t be.  The opposite bank will be swarming with William’s men—­it would be a most dangerous business.  No, it’s not to be thought of.”

“Very well, yer honour, it’s just as you like; but you have only got to hand me a bit of paper, and give me a wink of your eye, and I will do it.  As to William’s sodgers, it’s little I fear them; and if all one hears of their doings be true, and I had a pretty young creature a mile away from me, with those blackguards round about her, it’s anxious I should be for a line from her hand;” and Larry got down from his seat, and began to walk away towards the village.

Walter stood silent for a moment.

“Wait, Larry,” he said.

Larry turned, with a look of surprise upon his face.

“Come here,” Walter said impatiently.  “Of course I am anxious—­though I don’t know how you could have guessed it.”

“Sure yer honour,” Larry said with an innocent look, “when a gentleman like yourself is for ever walking and riding with a purty colleen, it don’t need much guessing to suppose that you would be worrying after her, with such creatures as the Northerners and the furreners in her neighbourhood.”

“And you seriously think you could take a letter across to her, Larry?”

“Sure and I could, yer honour.  The nights are dark, and I could get across the river widout a sowl being the wiser, and make my way to the stables, and give it to one of the boys, who will put it in the hands of Bridget, Miss Claire’s own maid; and I could go back, next night, for the answer.”

“But if you can do it, I can,” Walter said.

“What would be the good, yer honour?  It’s only the outside of the house you would see, and not the young lady.  Besides, there’s a lot more risk in your doing it than there is with me.  You are an officer of the king’s, and if you were caught on that side of the river, it’s mighty little trial they’d give you before they run you up to the bough of a tree, or put a bullet into you.  With me, it’s different.  I am just a country boy going to see my cousin Pat Ryan, who works in the stables at the house.  Pat would give me a character, no fear.”