LIFE IN IRELAND 201 



CHAPTER XVIII 



A drunken Piper prostrate — Meeting at a Prison supper, Swan 

 the Exciseman, in character — Swigging — An Irish song to a 

 Scotch air — Seeing the Parson with another man's wife — The 

 Exciseman's story — A boarding-school edification — An Informer 

 — Duty of an Exciseman — Song, the De\al came o'er the Curragh 

 of Kildare. 



AN Irish prison is a scene of constant mirth, and 

 it would do your heart good to be confined in 

 one for a year or two, at the expense of your creditors. 

 So said Brian Boru, as he retired to his little dungeon, 

 and stumbled over a drunken piper stretched on the 

 gallery flags, whom all the keeper's exertions had failed 

 to move : he had been provoking the merry dance in 

 Straw Hall, until he could tune his pipes to no tune 

 at all ; he was so full with whiskey, that his breath 

 could not get leave to come out of his mouth into the 

 ivory tube. So the party of dancers bore him upon 

 their shoulders to the gallery, where putting his pipes 

 under his head for a pillow, they left him to repose. 



In a gallery of the Sheriff's Prison there are many 

 cells or chambers adjoining each other, and the occu- 

 pants can freely visit one another; but the iron gate 

 at the end prevents them from going to any other part 

 of the place. Brian found Captain Blake in his room ; 

 he had very unfortunately been locked in the wrong 



