fighting to the last, in his own hall. At that time, the greater part of
his estate was bestowed upon officers and soldiers in Cromwell's army,
among whom no less than four million acres of Irish land were divided.

Had it not been that Walter Davenant's widow was an Englishwoman, and a
relation of General Ireton, the whole of the estate would have gone; but
his influence was sufficient to secure for her the possession of the
ruins of her home, and a few hundred acres surrounding it. Fortunately,
the dowry which Mrs. Davenant had brought her husband was untouched, and
a new house was reared within the ruins of the castle, the new work being
dovetailed with the old.

The family now consisted of Mrs. Davenant, a lady sixty-eight years old;
her son Fergus, who was, when Cromwell devastated the land, a child of
five years; his wife Katherine, daughter of Lawrence McCarthy, a large
landowner near Cork; and their two sons, Walter, a lad of sixteen, and
Godfrey, twelve years old.

Two miles west of the castle stood a square-built stone house, surrounded
by solidly-constructed barns and outbuildings. This was the abode of old
Zephaniah Whitefoot, the man upon whom had been bestowed the broad lands
of Walter Davenant. Zephaniah had fought stoutly, as lieutenant in one of
Cromwell's regiments of horse, and had always considered himself an
ill-treated man, because, although he had obtained all the most fertile
portion of the Davenant estate, the old family were permitted to retain
the castle, and a few hundred acres by the sea.

He was one of those who contended that the Amalekites should be utterly
destroyed by the sword, and he considered that the retention of the
corner of their domains, by the Davenants, was a direct flying in the