AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 3 



joining issue with mad majors and double-barrelled 

 guns. Now, Mr. Wamsley, resisting an invasion of his 

 rights, applied to the Justice for redress, whereas Major 

 O'Farrell considered that a reference to the pistol would 

 be much more gentlemanly — a deadly feud was the 

 consequence, and Mr. Wamsley was closely blockaded 

 within his park walls by the military deUnquent. 

 Fortunately for all concerned, the regiment got the 

 route ; Mr. Wamsley recovered his liberty, and his 

 detestation of the gallant 50th only ended with his 

 life. 



But his sister held a very different opinion respecting 

 the merits of the brave " Half Hundred." She was 

 devoted to the Lieutenant of Grenadiers, and the route 

 hurried matters to a crisis. The result may be antici- 

 pated. Despising park walls and surly keepers, Mr. 

 O'Brien overcame every difficulty, and with the assist- 

 ance of a garden ladder, the mad Major and his double- 

 barrelled gun, he carried off the lady, and at Gretna 

 they became *' one flesh." 



Mr. Wamsley was irritated beyond the possibility 

 of being appeased. Ten thousand pounds, which his 

 wife possessed without the control of her brother, 

 enabled my father to leave the army, and settle on his 

 hereditary estate in Roscommon ; and there he hunted, 

 shot, fished, and farmed, and lived just as Irish gentlemen 

 lived some thirty years ago. 



I was the only issue of the marriage. All commu- 

 nication had ceased between my parents and Mr. 

 Wamsley, and eighteen years passed away, and no 

 appearance of abated displeasure had ever been evinced 

 by this implacable relative. I left a public school for 

 the Dublin University, was destined for the Church, 



