140 THE RECOVERED PORTMANTEAU. 



" Heaven protect us !" I exclaimed. " It is a lying world 

 that we live in." 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



Spring tides Hennessey and the portmanteau Spillet-fishing Coal 

 fishing Mackerel Sea-fowl A failure Preserving gunpowder 

 An explosion Another accident A house burned The dinner 

 signal. 



THE springs have commenced, and the gray and lowering 

 atmosphere which the influence of these tides occasion has 

 set in. Ailhough the darkness would intimate a change, the 

 fresh breeze and sky appearances portend, as they tell me, 

 good weather. 



We are bound for the bay to lay down spillets ; and during 

 the tedious interval which of necessity occurs before they 

 can be lifted, we shall kill coal-fish, shoot sea-gulls, smoke 

 cigars, and no doubt, have a further detail of atrocities 

 from the Colonel, which would put the Newgate Calendar to 

 the blush. 



The mainsail is chalk-up, the hooker has slipped her 

 cables, and hangs by a single end 4o the pier, and we are 

 waiting for a row-boat, which four sturdy peasants propel with 

 might and main from the opposite shore. There is a man in 

 the stern- sheets who engrosses the undivided attention of my 

 cousin and his followers. The boat approaches/ -and " Blessed 

 Mary ! can it be ?" there sit Hennessey and the Colonel's 

 portmanteau ! The embassy has succeeded, the bustle of the 

 boatmen is commensurate to the importance of the freight, 

 and they give way in the full consciousness, that they carry 

 " Caesar arid his saddle-bags." 



Mr. Burke has made the amende honorable ; my cousin looks 

 two inches taller, and hints slily that feudal power in Bally- 

 croy is riot yet extinct ; and well he may, for the Colonel's 

 chattels are uninjured no rude hand has undone a buckle 

 not a shirt is wanting, or even the fold of a neckcloth disar- 

 ranged. There is a mysterious whispering between the 

 ambassador and Pattigo ; the commander rejoices over his 

 wardrobe; my kinsman looks "every inch a king;" and I 



