which you, yourselves, occupy. Your tenants, on the other hand, will be
my tenants; but in the house which you have built, and in the fields
which you have tilled, you will remain masters.

"I have thought the matter over, and this appears to me to be a just
settlement, and one which I give you my word that I will hold to, should
King James triumph in the end. I think that the law turning out the
Protestant settlers, from the land which they have held for forty years,
is well nigh as unjust as that which gave it to them."

"I will take no gifts at the hands of the wicked," Zephaniah began, but
Jabez interrupted him.

"Hush, father!" he said. "It is not thus that kindness should be met."

Then he stepped forward, leaving his father too surprised, at this sudden
assumption of command on the part of his son, to interrupt him.

"Captain Davenant," he said, "I thank you most sincerely, on the part of
myself, my wife and son, and, I may say, of my father, too, although at
present he may not realize the kindness of your offer. I do not think it
likely that, if James Stuart prevails, and Ireland is rent from England,
we shall avail ourselves of your offer, for we have more than sufficient
of this world's goods to remove to England, and there settle ourselves
and our son, for assuredly Ireland would be no place where a Protestant
could dwell in peace and quietness. Nevertheless, I thank you heartily,
and shall ever gratefully bear in mind the promise you have made, and the
fact that, although you have the power to turn us from our home, you have
stayed from doing so. There has been much wrong done on both sides; and,
from a boy, when I have seen you ride into or from your home, I have felt