“In the meantime,” said Sir Robert, very calmly, as he dismounted from his horse, which he desired one of the men to hold.  “I have a warrant from Government to arrest you, and send you back again to your own country without delay.  You are here as a spy, an incendiary, and must go on your travels forthwith.  In this, I am acting as your friend and protector, and so is Government, who do not wish to be severe upon you, as you are not a natural subject.  See sir, here is another warrant for your arrest and imprisonment.  The fact is, it was left to my own discretion, either to imprison you, or send you out of the country.  Now, sir, from a principle of lenity, I am determined on the latter course.”

“But,” replied the priest, after casting his eye over both documents, “as I am conscious of no offence, either against your laws or your Government, I decline to fly like a criminal, and I will not; put me in prison, if you wish, but I certainly shall not criminate myself, knowing as I do that I am innocent.  In the meantime, I request that you will accompany me to the castle of my patron, that I may acquaint him with the charges against me, and the cause of my being forced to leave his family for a time.”

“No, sir,” replied Whitecraft, “I cannot do so, unless I betray the trust which Government reposes in me.  I cannot permit you to hold any intercourse whatever with your patron, as you call him, who is justly suspected of being a Papist at heart.  Sir, you have been going abroad through the country, under pretence of administering consolation to the sick, and bestowing alms upon the poor; but the fact is, you have been stirring them up to sedition, if not to open rebellion.  You must, therefore, come along with us, this instant.  You proceed with us to Sligo, from whence we shall ship you off in a vessel bound for France, which vessel is commanded by a friend of mine, who will treat you kindly, for my sake.  What shall we do for a horse for him?” he asked, looking at his men for information on that point.

“That, your honor,we’ll provide in a crack,” replied the Red Rapparee, looking up the road; “here comes Sterling, the gauger, very well mounted, and, by all the stills he ever seized, he must walk home upon shank’s mare, if it was only to give him exercise and improve his appetite.”

We need not detail this open robbery on the king’s officer, and on the king’s highway besides.  It is enough to say that the Rapparee, confident of protection and impunity, with the connivance, although not by the express orders of the baronet, deprived the man of his horse, and, in a few minutes, the poor old priest was placed upon the saddle, and the whole cavalcade proceeded on their way to Sligo, the priest in the centre of them.  Fortunately for Sir Robert’s project, they reached the quay just as the vessel alluded to was about to sail; and as there was, at that period, no novelty in seeing a priest shipped out of the country, the loungers about the place, whatever they might have thought in their hearts, seemed to take no particular notice of the transaction.