THE RIVER. 313 



the blessing of God, we'll beat his honour 

 the Barrister, and Tommy Lightly too." 



The Grass Guard, to which they were 

 now approaching, to all appearance had 

 been, in times of geological antiquity, the 

 boundary of a small lake, and above that 

 barrier the river had still, for half a mile or 

 so, a broad, quiet, calm, lake-like appear- 

 ance. A ridge of low, lumpish, round- 

 headed hills, at the most not forty or fifty 

 feet high, looked as if they had once crossed 

 the river's course at right angles, forming a 

 sort of pond head: it seemed as if this 

 chain had been broken through, either by a 

 flood or by some convulsion of nature, for 

 they now exhibited two abrupt cliffs not 

 fifty yards apart, and corresponding to each 

 other, like the cheeks of a gigantic embra- 

 sure ; through this the river was pouring 

 its abundant waters, the opening being still 

 farther contracted, and the current acceler- 

 ated by the remains of a ruined eel-weir. 



" Holy Virgin ! the Captain's in him ! " 

 said Pat, as they arrived at the top of the 

 cliff which crowns the right bank, and looks 

 down on the stream ; and sure enough, just 

 below them, but on the opposite side, stood 



