“It is a cabin--There is another yonder, beside the river.”
“A cabin! Surely you cannot mean that people are living there?” said the girl, as a sickly pallor spread itself across her cheeks.
“Yes, to be sure,” replied the youth; “they have no better hereabouts.”
“What poverty--what dreadful misery is this!” said she, as the great tears gushed forth, and stole heavily down her face.
“They are not so poor,” answered the young man, in a voice of almost reproof. “The cattle along that mountain all belong to these people--the goats you see in that glen are theirs also.”
“And whose estate may this be?” said the old man.
Either the questioner or his question seemed to have called up again the youth's former resentment, for he fixed his eyes steadily on him for some time without a word, and then slowly added--
“This belongs to an Englishman--a certain Sir Marmaduke Travers--It is the estate of O'Donoghue.”
“Was, you mean, once,” answered the old man quickly.
“I mean what I say,” replied the other rudely. “Confiscation cannot take away a right, it can at most--”
This speech was fortunately not destined to be finished, for while he was speaking, his quick glance detected a dark object soaring above his head. In a second he had seized his gun, and taking a steady aim, he fired. The loud report was heard repeated in many a far-off glen, and ere its last echo died away, a heavy object fell upon the road not many yards from where they stood.
“This fellow,” said the youth, as he lifted the body of a large black eagle from the ground--“This fellow was a confiscator too, and see what he has come to. You'd not tell me that our lambs were his, would you?”
The roll of wheels happily drowned these words, for by this time the postillions had reached the place, the four post-horses labouring under the heavy-laden travelling carriage, with its innumerable boxes and imperials.
The post boys saluted the young man with marked deference, to which he scarcely deigned an acknowledgment, as he replaced his shot-pouch, and seemed to prepare for the road once more.
Meanwhile the old gentleman had assisted his daughter to the carriage, and was about to follow, when he turned around suddenly and said--
“If your road lies this way, may I offer you a seat with us?”