I could have no objection to so pleasant a proposal; and thus, for the time at least, ended this disagreeable affair.
CHAPTER XXXV. AN UNFORSEEN EVIL
“I perceive, sir,” said the stranger, seating himself at my table, “they are desirous to restore an antiquated custom in regard to you. I thought the day of indemnities was past and gone forever.”
“I am ignorant to what you allude.”
“The authorities would make you out an emissary of France, sir,—as if France had not enough on her hands already, without embroiling herself in a quarrel from which no benefit could accrue; not to speak of the little likelihood that any one on such an errand would take up his abode, as you have, in the most public hotel of Dublin.”
“I have no apprehensions as to any charges they may bring against me. I am conscious of no crime, saving having left my country a boy, and returning to it a man.”
“You were in the service of France, then?”
“Yes; since 1801 I have been a soldier.”
“So long? You must have been but a mere boy when you quitted Ireland. How have they connected you with the troubles of that period?”