'Boy, you chatter balderdash,' Curran snapped shortly; 'such balderdash as the ignorant drink too eagerly for truth. Oh for a little ballast to keep us steady! An Irishman, when not stranded on the Scylla of indolence, is certain to flounder headforemost on the Charybdis of enthusiasm; and, of the two dangers, the latter is generally the worst.' 'Deed, it's thrue what ye say, councillor dear,' Cassidy murmured, in a coaxing tone. 'But sure, though you rail at us, you would not stand by neither, any more nor this young gintleman? We know well enough your heart is with us.' 'You are no better than baaing sheep following one another into the shambles,' answered the host testily, for he was taken aback by this open assault upon himself and Terence. 'Your ill-digested plans must fail.' 'Fail!' echoed Robert and Cassidy together. 'Why,' continued the former, forgetting his horror of bloodshed, 'when the time comes we shall count upon a hundred thousand men. I know it by the returns sent in to the Directory.' 'On paper.' 'And the French will be here in force--the veterans of the Republic.' 'The French, the French!' growled Curran. 'Say that they land and beat the armies of King George, which I much doubt; will they not soon weary of a precarious possession, and, carrying you to market in some treaty of peace, barter you away to be well scourged? I vow I have no patience with you, grieved though I be for the humble order of the people, who from lack of education are easily deluded. Depend upon it, your acts are all known in London. By the time you are ready, the towns will seethe with British troops. I tremble to think of the result.' 'Would ye have us turn the cheek like good Christians, then?' jeered the giant, who, under influence of wine, was becoming warm. 'Are the sons of the ancient kings meekly to become galley-slaves?' 'What would I have ye do?' retorted the host, who perceived with wrath that he was being driven into a corner. 'I'd have ye keep a civil tongue, and talk no treason till ye're outside my privet-hedge. If ye do not, I'll report what's been said to Clare; I will, upon my honour, to save ye from worse folly.' The sturdy little man looked as if he were quite capable of carrying out his threat. If he were to disclose all he knew of them, it would be terrible indeed. Cassidy, the claret mounting to his muddled brain, seized a decanter with the laudable intention of belabouring his host with it. 'A traitor!' he muttered fiercely. 'That's the lowest beast that crawls. If ye spake ere a word of us, I'll pistol ye in the street!'