He gladly promised to take the pony and cloak to the castle. It was already late in the day, but he observed that “that did not matter,” as it must be a dark night in which he could not find his way home. The pony was, however, in the field, and some more time elapsed before he was caught. Miss O’Reilly then bethought her, that Dermot had been a long time without food, and insisted on his taking some before he set off in that blustering evening. It was thus almost dark before he left the vicarage for the castle. He looked down on the bay: the frigate still lay at anchor there, the wind being still from the north.
“If the wind shifts a little more to the west, she will have to put to sea,” thought Dermot. “It will not do for her to remain in the bay with the wind blowing in from the west, and with such often rolls in here, enough to cast the stoutest ship high upon the beach, or to dash her to fragments should she touch the rocks.”
Dermot rode on, not, however, very fast, as the little animal was unwilling to leave his own home, not guessing the comfortable quarters to which he was bound. The wind brought up a heavy shower of rain and hail; Dermot was doubtful whether he ought to shelter himself under the young lord’s cloak. “Still,” he thought, “it will not be the worse for being on my shoulders, and I shall be wet through and well-nigh frozen before I reach the castle, if I am to sit on this animal’s back exposed to the storm.”
He wisely therefore, having overcome his scruples,
put on the cloak, and continued his course as fast as the pony would condescend to go towards the castle.
Just as the frigate was hid from his view by some intervening downs, he thought he saw the men going aloft to loose the topsails, an indication of the ship being about to get under weigh.
“It is the wisest thing that can be done,” he thought to himself. “She can easily stand off until the summer gale is over, and run no risk of being driven on shore.”
He was already at no great distance from the castle, when suddenly from behind some rocks and bushes which lay near the road, a number of men sprang up and seized the bridle of his pony. He was too much astonished to cry out, or to ask what was their purpose in thus attacking him.
By the expressions that they uttered, however, he soon discovered that they were under the impression that they had got possession of the young lord.