"Ay," exclaimed Oliver, "Considine draw--though you could not have bade him do an thing he fears more. But so will I. Let's see whether steel or a blue plum shall get the best of this fray"; with which he produced his two great pistols and pointed one at each of his opponents, while the knot of people who had now gathered together on the bank cheered him to the echo. And especially they did so when they learnt the circumstances of the dispute, and that, in me, they beheld the real Lord St. Amande, the youth deprived of his rights, and, in Robert St. Amande, the usurper whose misdeeds were now the talk of the lower parts of Dublin, if no other. "Bah!" the latter exclaimed, thrusting his rapier back into the scabbard with a clash, "put up thy pistols, fellow. This is no place for such an encounter. Nor will I stain my sword with thy base blood. But remember," he said, coming a pace or two closer, as he saw Oliver return the pistols to his belt, "remember, you shall not escape. You have my writing in your pocket to hold you free of this morning's work, but"--and he looked terrible as he hissed forth the words--"think not that I will fail to yet be avenged. Even though you should go to the other end of the known world I will follow you or have you followed, while as for you," turning to me, "I will never know peace night nor day till I have blotted your life out of existence. And if you have not gone forth to the plantations this morning, 'tis but a short reprieve. If I do not have thy life, as I will, as I will"--and here he opened and clenched both his hands as he repeated himself, so that he looked as though trying to clutch at me and tear me to pieces--"as I will, why then still shalt thou be transported to the colonies, thou devil's brat!" "Ay to the colonies," struck in Quin, "to the colonies, whereunto now the _Dove_ is taking the false usurper, or the future false usurper of the title of St. Amande, while the real owner remains here safe and sound for the present at least. To the colonies. Right!" "The _Dove_. The false usurper," exclaimed Considine and my uncle together, while their faces became blanched with fear and rising apprehension. "The _Dove_ taking the false usurper. Villain!" said my uncle, "what mean you? Speak!" "I mean, _villain_," replied Oliver, "that on board the _Dove_, now well out to sea, is one of the false claimants of the title of St. Amande, one of those who were concerned in the plot to ship this, the rightful lord, off to Virginia. I mean that, amongst the convicts and the scum of Dublin who have been bought for slavery, there goes Roderick St. Amande, your son, sold also into slavery like the rest." From my uncle's lips there came a cry terrible to hear, a cry which mingled with the shouts of those who could catch Oliver's words; then with another and a shorter cry, more resembling a gasp, he fell fainting into the arms of Considine. CHAPTER IX MY MOTHER