“Her husband was killed three weeks after I went there, and the blow was too much for her, and she died a week later.  A fortnight after that came the peace, and as everything was in confusion, what wid our soldiers all going away to France, and the persecutions and slaughterings, I took the child with me and went down to my cousin Larry’s here.  Av course, I could not part with it, and I could not make my way alone across the country, so I came down here with the troops.  I was not strong myself, and it was a year later before I was able to take it to its friends.”

“What was the name of your master?” Desmond asked eagerly, for her last words had excited a sudden train of ideas in his mind.

“He was Mr. James O’Carroll, a great gentleman, and the head of his family.”

Desmond sprang to his feet.

“That explains it all!” he exclaimed.  “Mrs. Rooney, I have no doubt that I am your foster child.”

“Why, how can that be, your honour, seeing as your name is Kennedy?  Though, except for that, you might well be so, seeing that you are so like my master.”

“At any rate, Mrs. Rooney, I was reared at Kilkargan, at the expense of John O’Carroll, and was, as I heard, brought there by a woman when I was a year old.  O’Carroll said that my name was Desmond Kennedy, but I had only his word for it.”

“Then how is it that you are not master of Kilkargan, for if you are Mr. James O’Carroll’s son, it is you that ought to be?  I have always thought of you as there.  I have not been in the way of getting news.  I left my address with Mr. John, but I never heard from him, or you.  I thought, perhaps, that he might have lost the address, but I never dreamt that you had been kept out of your own.”

“I don’t know that I can say that, altogether,” Desmond said; “for, if it had been known that James O’Carroll had left an heir, his estates would certainly have been confiscated; whereas, owing to his brother’s turning Protestant, and joining the Williamites, he was allowed to keep possession of them.  I can understand now what seemed so strange, namely, that he feared I might somehow learn that I was his nephew, and heir to the estates.  Therefore, he behaved as if I was the son of a stranger, and when I was old enough, sent me off to join the Irish Brigade, in hopes that he had seen the last of me; for, even if not killed, I should never be able to set foot in Ireland again after fighting for France.  ’Tis strange that none of my father’s brother officers ever made any enquiries about it.”

“They all went with the army to France, sir.  They knew, of course, that the child was born, though they may never have seen you, for the mistress never left her bed after you were born.  Naturally, after her death they lost sight of me, and might well have believed that the child had died.”

“You must give me the names of all the officers who came to the house, Mrs. Rooney.  Many of them may be alive still, and their testimony that a child was born would be most important, for at present there is only your word against John O’Carroll’s.”