Be ready to sail three days hence.

Till then, leave not the town, but abide at the hostel for further orders." This was a thunderbolt to me.

I knew the Captain well enough to be sure that, if he had indeed left Castleroe, he had either not left it alone or had left worse than desolation behind him.

He was too well-known to his comrades in these parts to leave much doubt of that; and when that same night I heard by chance that Turlogh for a month past had been away in Dublin, leaving the protection of his castle to this English champion of his, I made sure, what I had feared all along, that I was come too late.
One thing I was resolved on.

Come what would, I would make for Castleroe and learn the worst for myself.