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assizes, or races, or other such cause of commotion, demanded all the resources of her establishment, and more, if she had them. So the Dinnys and the Tims, and the Mickeys, were rubbing down horses, cleaning knives, or drawing forth extra tables from their dusty repose, and the Biddys, and Judys, and Nellys, were washing up plates, scouring pans, and brightening up extra candlesticks, or doing deeds of doom in the poultry yard, where an audible commotion gave token of the premature deaths of sundry supernumerary chickens.

Murphy soon joined his guests, grinning from ear to ear, and rubbing his hands as he entered.

"Great news, boys," said he,"who do you think was at my house when I got home, but M'Garry, with his head bandaged up, and his whole body, as he declares, bearing black and blue testimony to the merciless attack of the bold O'Grady, against whom he swears he'll bring an action for assault and battery, Now, boys, I thought it would be great fun to have him here to dinner,—it's as good as a play to hear him describe the thrashing,- -so I asked him to come. He said he was not in a fit state to dine out, but I egged him on, by saying that a sight of him in his present plight would excite sympathy for him, and stir up public feeling against O'Grady, and that all would tell in the action, as most likely some of the present company might be on the jury, and would be the better able to judge how far he was entitled to damages, from witnessing the severity of the injury he had received. So he's coming; and mind, you must all be deeply affected at his sufferings, and impressed with the powerful description he gives of the

same.

"Very scientific, of course," said old Growling.

"Extensively so," returned Murphy; "he laid on the Latin, heavy." "Yes the fool," growled the doctor; "he can't help sporting it, even on me; I went into his shop one day, and asked for some opium wine; and he could not resist calling it vinum opii as he handed it to me."

"We'll make him a martyr!" cried Durfy.

"We'll make him dhrunk," said Jack Horan, "and that will be better-he brags that he never was what he calls' inebriated' in his life; and it will be great fun to send him home on a door, with a note to his wife, who is proud of his propriety."

As they spoke, M'Garry entered, his head freshly bound up, to look as genteel as possible amongst the gentlemen with whom he was to have the honour of dining. His wife had suggested a pink ribbon, but M'Garry, while he acknowledged his wife's superior taste, said black would look more professional. The odd fellows, to whom he had now committed himself, crowded round him, and in the most exaggerated phrases, implied the high sense they entertained of his wrongs, and O'Grady's aggression.

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"What dignified composure!" added a fourth, in an audible whisper meant for M'Garry's ear.

"Gentlemen!" said the apothecary, flurried at the extreme attention of which he became the object, "I beg to assure you I am deeplythat is- this proof of-of-of-of symptoms-gentlemen-I mean sympathy, gentlemen-in short, I really-"

"The fact is," said Growling; "I see Mr. M'Garry is rather shaken in nerve-whether from loss of blood, or-"

"I have lost a quantity of blood, doctor," said M'Garry; "much vascular,―to say nothing of extravasated."

"Which I'll state in my case," said Murphy

"Murphy, don't interrupt," said Growling; who, with a very grave face, recommenced,-" Gentlemen, from the cause already stated, I see Mr. M'Garry is not prepared to answer the out-pouring of feeling with which you have greeted him, and if I might be permitted-"

Every one shouted, "Certainly-certainly."

"Then, as I am permitted, I will venture to respond for Mr. M'Garry, and address you, as he would address you. In the words of Mister M'Garry, I would say,-Gentlemen- unaccustomed as I am—”

Some smothered laughter followed this beginning-upon which the doctor, with a mock gravity proceeded-

"Gentlemen, this interruption I conceive to be an infringement on the liberty of the subject. I recommence, therefore, in the words of my honourable and wounded friend, and our honourable and wounded feelings, and say-as my friend would say, or, to speak classically, M'Garry loquitur—

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The apothecary bowed his head to the bit of Latin, and the doctor continued.

"Gentlemen- -unaccustomed as I am to public thrashing, you can conceive what my feelings are at the present moment, in mind and body. [Bravo.] "You behold an outrage [much confusion]; shall an exaggerated savagery like this escape punishment, and the calm sequestered vale' (as the poet calls it) of private life, be ravaged with impunity? [Bravo! bravo!] Are the learned professions to be trampled under foot by barbarian ignorance and brutality? No; I read in the indignant looks of my auditory their high-souled answers. Gentlemen, your sympathy is better than dyachylon to my wounds, and this is the proudest day of my life."

Thunders of applause followed the doctor's address, and every one shook M'Garry's hand, till his bruised bones ached again. Questions poured upon him from all sides as to the nature and quantity of his drubbing, to all which M'Garry innocently answered in terms of exaggeration, spiced with scientific phrases. Muscles, tendons, bones and sinews, were particularised with the precision of an anatomical demonstration; he swore he was pulverized, and paralyzed, and all the other lies he could think of.

"A large stick, you say?" said Murphy.

"Sir! I never saw such a stick-'twas like a weaver's beam."

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"I'll make a note of that," said Murphy, a weaver's beam-'twill tell well with a jury.”

"And beat you all over?" said Durfy.

"From shoulder to flank, sir, I am one mass of welts and weals; the

abrasures are extensive, the bruises terrific, particularly in the lumbar region."

"Where's that?" asked Jack Horan.

"The lumbar region is what is commonly called the loins, sir." "Not always," said the doctor. "It varies in different subjects: I have known some people whose lumber region lay in the head."

"You laugh, gentlemen," said M'Garry with a mournful smile, " but you know the doctor-he will be jocular." He then continued to describe the various other regions of his injuries, amidst the well acted pity and indignation of the queer fellows who drew him out, until they were saturated, so far, with the fun of the subject. After which, Murphy, whose restless temperament could never let him be quiet for a moment, suggested that they should divert themselves before dinner with a badger fight.

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Isn't one fight a day enough for you, signor ?" said the doctor.

"It is not every day we get a badger, you know," said Murphy; "and I heard just now from Tim the waiter that there is a horse dealer lately arrived at the stables here, who has a famous one with him, and I know Reilly the butcher has two or three capital dogs, and there's a wicked mastiff below stairs, and I'll send for my 'buffer,' and we'll have some spanking sport."

He led his guests then to the inn yard, and the horse dealer, for a consideration, allowed his badger to wage battle; the noise of the affair spread through the town, while they were making their arrangements, and sending right and left for dogs for the contest; and a pretty considerable crowd soon assembled at the place of action, where the hour before dinner was spent in the intellectual amusement of a badgerfight.

CHAPTER V.

THE fierce yells of the badger fight, ringing far and wide, soon attracted a crowd, which continued to increase every minute by instalments of men and boys, who might be seen running across a small field by the road side, close to the scene of action, which lay at the back of the inn; and heavy-caped and skirted frieze coats streamed behind the full grown, while the rags of the gossoons *fluttered in the race. Attracted by this evidence of "something going on," a horseman who was approaching the town, urged his horse to speed, and turning his head towards a yawning double ditch that divided the road from the field, he gracefully rode the noble animal over the spanking leap.

The rider was Edward O'Connor; and he was worthy of his namethe pure blood of that royal race was in his heart, which never harboured a sentiment that could do it dishonour, and overflowed with feelings which ennoble human nature, and make us proud of our kind. He was young and handsome; and as he sat his mettled horse, no lady could deny that Edward O'Connor was the very type of the gallant cavalier. Though attached to every manly sport and exercise, his mind was of a refined order; and a youth passed amidst books and some of the loveliest scenery of Ireland had nurtured the poetic feeling with which his mind was gifted, and which found its vent in many a lovetaught lyric, or touching ballad, or spirit-stirring song whose theme was national glory. To him the bygone days of his country's history were dear, made more familiar by many an antique relic which hung around his own room, in his father's house. Celt, and sword, and spear-head of Phoenician bronze, and golden gorget, and silver bodkin, and ancient harp, and studded crozier, were there; and these time-worn evidences of arts, and arms, and letters, flattered the affection with which he looked back on the ancient history of Ireland, and kept alive the ardent love of his country with which he glowed, -a love too deep, too pure, to be likely to expire, even without the aid of such poetic sources of excitement. To him the names of Fitzgerald, and Desmond, and Tyrone, were dear; and there was no romantic legend of the humbler outlaws with which he was not familiar; and " Charley of the Horses," and "Ned of the Hill," but headed the list of names he loved to recall ; and the daring deeds of bold spirits who held the hill side for liberty were often given in words of poetic fire from the lips of Edward O'Connor.

And yet Edward O'Connor went to see the badger fight.

There is something inherent in man's nature, urging him to familiarize himself with cruelty; and perhaps, without such power of witnessing savage deeds, he would be unequal to the dominion for which he was designed.

* Boys.

Men of the highest order of intellect the world has known have loved the chase. How admirably Scott displays this tendency of noble minds, in the meeting of Ellen with her father, when Douglas says

"The chase I followed far;

'Tis mimicry of noble war."

And the effect of this touch of character is heightened by Douglas, in a subsequent scene-Douglas, who could enjoy the sport which ends in death, bending over his gentle child, and dropping tears of the tenderest affection; tears, which

"Would not stain an angel's cheek."

Superadded to this natural tendency, Edward O'Connor had an additional motive. He lived amongst a society of sporting men, less cultivated than he was, whose self-esteem would have easily ignited to the spark of jealousy, if he had seemed to scorn the things which made their principal enjoyment, and formed the chief occupation of their lives; and his good sense and good heart (and there is an intimate connexion between them) pointed out to him, that wherever your lot is cast, duty to yourself and others suggests the propriety of adapting your conduct to the circumstances in which you are placed (so long as morality and decency are not violated), and that the manifestation of one's own superiority may render the purchase too dear, by being bought at the terrible price of our neighbour's dislike. He therefore did not tell every body he wrote verses; he kept the gift as secret as he could. If an error, however gross, on any subject, were made in his presence, he never took willing notice of it; or if circumstances obliged him to touch upon it, it was always done with a politeness and tact that afforded the blunderer the means of retreat. If some gross historical error, for instance, happened to be committed in a conversation with himself (and then only), he would set the mistake right, as a matter of conscience, but he would do so by saying there was a great similarity between the event spoken of and some other event. I know what you are thinking of," he would say, but you make a slight mistake in the dates; the two stories are very similar, and likely to mislead one." But with all this modest reserve, did the least among his companions think him less clever? No. It was shrewdly suspected he was a poet; it was well known he was highly educated and accomplished; and yet Edward O'Connor was a universal favourite, bore the character of being "real fine fellow," and was loved and respected by the most illiterate of the young men of the county; who, in allusion to his extensive lore on the subject of the legendary heroes of the romantic history of Ireland, his own christian name, and his immediate place of residence, which was near a wild mountain pass, christened him "Ned of the Hill."

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His appearance amidst the crowd assembled to witness the rude sport was hailed with pleasure,-varying from the humble, but affectionate respect of the peasant, who cried "Long life to you, Misther O'Connor, to the hearty burst of equality, which welcomed him as "Ned of the Hill." The fortune of the fight favoured the badger, who proved himself a trump; and Murphy appreciated his worth so highly, that, when the

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