1829-3 Bonnybrook Fair. 263 



Swan, who was in no way deficient in resolution, pinioned him round 

 the body before he could well disengage himself from the dying man, 

 and threw him back upon the bed from which he had sprung on their 

 entrance, and then Sirr, who during the conflict was safely ensconced 

 outside the door, saw fit to enter, and putting a pistol to his shoulder, 

 as he lay under Swan, shot him into the body. He was carried off 

 instantly to a place of security, and among the first who saw him in his 

 miserable state, was a near and valued friend of mine, who, though he 

 abhorred his politics, had known him long and intimately in private 

 life, and who, himself a man of as strong nerves, and as little likely to 

 give way to emotion as any one I know, Avas so shocked at the sight 

 that he burst into tears. " Don't be downhearted," said the unhappy 

 man, "it is the fortune of war." He lingered for a day or two in 

 extreme agony, before welcome death closed his unfortunate career. 

 Thus perished a high-minded but hot-headed man, who, born for better 

 things, suffered himself to fall blindfold, as it were, into the hands of a 

 knot of sanguinary dastards, who, as they betrayed him in the con- 

 spiracy, would have deserted him in the field. Something too much 

 of this. I know not how I stumbled on the subject. I have done with 

 it for ever. 



Let us return to Donnybrook. During the fair week, Dan Don- 

 nelly's tent (he always kept one after he became a celebrated character) 

 was always crowded to excess by all classes, high and low; some 

 attracted by admiration of the good things of this life dispensed by 

 the amiable Lady Dann'ly, others by the couA-ivial and facetious quali- 

 ties of her redoubted spouse ; in the evening, especially, you were sure 

 to find him the centre of a circle of wondering listeners, detailing some 

 of his extraordinary adventures, the most astonishing of which It was 

 heresy in the eyes of his followers to doubt for an instant, though my 

 love of truth obliges me to confess, that one or two I have heard him 

 relate sounded a little apocryphal. But great and extraordinary cha- 

 racters are not to be judged of by common rules; for instance, his 

 account of the manner in which he obtained the honour of knighthood 

 from the hands of our present gracious Sovereign, then Prince Regent, 

 always appeared to me to differ in some material circumstances from the 

 ordinary routine of court etiquette, and rather to resemble one of those 

 amusing and instructive narratives denominated fairy tales. But on this 

 delicate subject perhaps the safest course is to suffer the reader to judo-e 

 for himself: so without further circumlocution, I will submit my lamented 

 friend's account to his perusal, in the precise words in which I have so 

 often had the pleasure of hearing it. 



" My jewels, I was lyin' in bed one mornin', restin' myself, in regard 

 ov bein' dhrunk the night afore, wid Scroggins an' Jack Randall, an' 

 some more ov the boys ; an' as I was lyin' on the broad ov my back, 

 thinkin' ov nothin', a knock came to my door. ' Come in,' says I, ' iv 

 you're fat.' So the door opened sure enough, an' in come a great big 

 cliaj), dhressed in the most elegantest way ever you see, wid a cockade 

 in his hat, an' a plume ov feathers out ov id, an' goolden epulets upon 

 his shouldhers, an' tossels an' bobs of goold all over the coat ov him, jist 

 like any lord ov the land. ' Are you Dan Dann'ly,' says he ; — ' TJiroth 

 an' I am,' says I ; ' an' that's my name sure enough, for want ov a bet- 

 ther ; an' what d'ye want wid me now you've found me.' — ' My masther 

 is wantin' to spake to ye, an' sint me to tell you to come down to hia 



