Still, although the affection of those brothers seemed to increase, the conduct of Harry was full of mystery.  That the confidence he placed in Charles was slight and partial admitted of no doubt.  He was in the habit, for instance, of going out after the family had gone to bed, as we have mentioned before; and it was past all doubt that he had been frequently seen accompanied, in his midnight rambles, by what was known in the neighborhood as the Black Spectre, or, by the common people, as the Shan-dhinne-dhue, or the dark old man.  These facts invested his character, which, in spite of all his plausibility of manner, was unpopular, with something of great dread, as involving on his part some unholy association with the evil and supernatural.  This was peculiarly the age of superstition and of a belief in the connection of both men and women with diabolical agencies; for such was the creed of the day.

One evening, about this time, Caterine Collins was on her way home to Rathfillan, I when, on crossing a piece of bleak moor adjacent to the town, a powerful young fellow, dressed in the truis, cloak, and barrad of the period, started up from a clump of furze bushes, and addressed her as follows:—­

“Caterine,” said he, “are you in a hurry?”

“Not particularly,” she replied; “but in God’s name, Shawn, what brings you here?  Are you mad? or what tempts you to come within the jaws of the law that are gaping for you as their appointed victim?  Don’t you know you are an outlaw?”

“I will answer your first question first,” he replied.  “What tempted me to come here?  Vengeance—­deep and deadly vengeance.  Vengeance upon the villain who has ruined Grace Davoren.  I had intended to take her life first; but I am an Irishman, and will not visit upon the head of the innocent girl, whom this incarnate devil has tempted beyond her strength, the crime for which he is accountable.”

“Well, indeed, Shawn, it would be only serving him right; but, in the meantime, you had better be on your guard; it is said that he fears neither God nor devil, and always goes well armed; so be cautious, and if you take him at all, it must be by treachery.”

“No,” said the outlaw, indignantly, “I’ll never take him or any man by treachery.  I know I am an outlaw; but it was the merciless laws of the country, and their injustice to me and mine, that made me so; I resisted them openly and like a man; but, bad as I am supposed to be, I will never stain either my name or my conscience by an act of cowardly treachery.  I will meet this dark villain face to face, and take my revenge as a brave man ought.  You say he goes well armed, and that is a proof that he feels his own guilt; yes, he goes well armed, you say; so do I, and it will not be the treacherous murderer that he will meet, but the open foe.”

“Well,” replied Caterine, “that is just like you, Shawn; and it is no wonder that the women were fond of you.”