“Ay, that I would, with the best intentions in the world, but since I cannot carry out my purpose, I will even drink with you or fight with you, as you will.” “I should stand no chance with you either way, I am afraid; but I am very tired and with your permission”--and here Gervase offered to rise. The other clapped his hand upon his sword, and rose to his feet with a drunken stagger. “Nay, that you shall not. I am a hospitable man, and none shall say that I did not give you an opportunity of going to bed like a gentleman.” Finding himself thus placed between two fires, Gervase unwillingly resumed his seat, and watched his truculent host growing more and more intoxicated, while he entered into a rambling disquisition on his own fortunes and the wrongs of his unhappy country. He did not doubt but that the time of deliverance had come. The Irish gentlemen were about to strike a great blow for freedom and for James Stuart, though they cared not a whit for the quarrel, but he served their purpose as well as another. For the pestilent heretics in Londonderry, they would be taught a wholesome lesson: they would be made a warning to all traitors. His father was a man in Cromwell´s day. Then his talk grew more and more incoherent, and finally, with his head fallen upon his arms, and the contents of the overturned measure streaming over the table, he fell fast asleep. Gervase then rose and sought his own bed, glad that, after all, the night had passed so amicably. CHAPTER VIII. OF THE RETURN TO THE CITY. Colonel Sarsfield more than fulfilled the promise he had made. Seeing that Dorothy had set her heart upon joining her friends in Londonderry, he had accompanied her part of the way himself, and had provided her with an escort for the remainder of her journey. To Gervase he had shown unaffected kindness. He had provided him with a horse and apparel befitting his condition, and at parting had wrung his hand with an appearance of great warmth and friendship. “It is right, perhaps,” he had said, “that we should be on different sides of this quarrel, but we can part with mutual good-will. I have but one hope and one thought--to see my country once more a nation, great and free. I would that all our people were of one mind, and were striking together for their fatherland. But it is still our curse to be divided--torn and rent by civil feuds. But believe me when I say that Patrick Sarsfield has only one desire on earth, and that is that his country should have her own laws and her own government, and freedom for the meanest. I think I shall meet my fate on the field of battle, but I hope not before I have seen that splendid day. Think well of us, Mr. Orme, and though you do your duty on your own side, remember that there are among us those whose cause is sacred in their eyes, and whose country is dearer to them than their lifeblood.”