326 WILD SPORTS OF THE WEST 



She became pale and agitated, while with affected 

 indifference of manner, she taxed me with rudeness 

 to my company, and more especially to herself. What 

 would the world say, if on this high festival, when the 

 heir of Castle Toole was to be presented to his relatives, 

 I should appear more like a monk at a death-wake than a 

 happy parent ? ' Lord ! Mr. Dawkins, this moping is so 

 unmanly. Here will be the O'Tooles and the 

 O'Shaughnesseys, Blakes and Burkes, Bellews and 

 Bodkins : they will feel it a personal insult. If you 

 encourage these humours, I assure you, Mr. Dawkins, 

 you will never do for Galway.' Before this jobation 

 ended, carriage- wheels grated on the gravel, and men, 

 women, and children commenced and continued pouring 

 in, as if another deluge had begun, and Castle Toole 

 was an ark of safety. 



" While the house was crowded within, the space 

 before it appeared to be in the possession of numerous 

 banditti. The tenants, of course, had flocked hither to 

 do honour to the christening. For their refreshment 

 a beeve was roasted whole, and beer and whisky 

 lavishly distributed. I never saw such a scene of waste 

 and drunkenness before, although I had hitherto believed 

 that my residence was the veriest rack-rent in the world. 

 In every corner pipers played, women danced, men 

 drank, and swearing and love-making was awful. There, 

 while dinner was being served, I had stolen forth to vent 

 my agony unnoticed. I am not, sirs, gifted with that 

 command of nerve which can exhibit hollow smiles 

 while the bosom is inly bleeding. To affect gaiety 

 so foreign to my heart, I felt would break it ; but the 

 desperate misery that I endured would spur the dullest 

 soul to madness. I viewed the rude revelry with 



