About half-a-dozen men came in shortly after my arrival, and then the whole force numbered thirty.
When all who had been expected had come, the captain, who was the man who had seized me said--addressing me:--
"Help and comfort we always got from your father, Frank O'Mahony. Ah, and if the truth were known, my boy, he spent many a night on the hills with the Rapparees. May Heaven be his bed to-night. You are over young yet, but still not too young to strike a blow for Ireland. There isn't a man here who wouldn't die for you if necessary."
"I hope to strike a blow for Ireland," I said, "but word has come from my uncle, Colonel O'Mahony, that he wishes me to go to France and join him." "God bless the Colonel, wherever he is," said the captain, "he'll never miss the chance, but would to God he was with us at home. The best--the best and the bravest have gone away from us."
"What are you saying, man," said the old woman, suddenly confronting him. "There's not a colonel nor a general in the whole French army a bit boulder or braver than our own Rapparees."
"We do our best, Moira asthoreen," said the captain, laying his hand on her shoulder, "but the men who are gone away are winning fame for the old land, God bless them all. For sure their thoughts are always with poor Ireland, and every blow they strike they strike for her, and their pride in the hour of victory is because their own old land hears of it."
"Ay, and every blow the Rapparees strike, they strike for her, too," said Moira, "and 'tis no living there would be no living at all at all for poor people here at home if it weren't for the boys, and--come there now, Jem Mullooney, and give us a stave about my bowld Rapparees. Yes, you can do it when you like, and I bet Master Frank here never heard it."
I admitted I never had, and I cordially joined in the chorus which followed, and endorsed Moira's demand.
Moira, apparently delighted to hear me backing up her demand, said:
"Musha, good luck to the mist that brought you here, Master Frank," said she, "and sure that same mist has often proved a great friend to the Rapparees."
The men had seated themselves around the cave as best they could, some on bunches of heather, some on sods of turf, some on roots of trees roughly shaped into a seat. The captain, a few others and myself, were sitting close to the fire.