LIFE IN IRELAND 69 



King to a woman ? Had you said Marc Anthony's 

 galley, 'twould have been nearer the mark.' ' No, 

 pardon me, my Lady,' interrupted Brian, 'Anthony 

 was a blackguard, and King George is known to be a 

 ^'<2<a:/ gentleman by birth, education, right, and title.' 



At this moment some guns which were fired from 

 the Martello Towers broke the conversation, and Brian 

 eagerly enquired if these little round-houses were made 

 for the purpose of firing a welcome, or for what ? Sir 

 Shawn referred him to Evans the pilot, who knew 

 every stone in and around the Bay, if you chose to 

 take his word for it. ' By the life of my dead grand- 

 mother, whose soul I 've been paying the priest to pray 

 out of purgatory these seven years ! ' said Evans, ' I 

 can't tell what to call these things ; we call them castles 

 in the air, but men in the Hordnance Apartment call 

 them Myrtello Towers. These four betwixt Dalkey 

 and Irish Town cost tirteefi thousand pounds in the 

 building ; they are bam proof, with one gun exposed 

 on the top, and the only door by which you can enter 

 them is a window^ thirty feet from the ground. When 

 you are in you pull up the ladder in the same manner 

 they did in Sukey Brawn's sky parlour in war time, 

 when she hid the longshore boys from the press as 

 long as their money lasted, and when that was gone 

 pressed them to be gone off wid a kick that pitched 

 'em head foremost from the trap-door into the arms of 

 their body-hunters; but the best on't is, Sir, God help 

 the while ! they were meant to sink the French ships 

 then and there inspected to invade us ; but, by my soul ! 

 when they came to survey the sea before them, it was 

 found that neither big ship nor little ship or small boat 



