20 WILD SPORTS OF THE WEST. 



tous Speed. " The house must be on fire ! " I ejacu- 

 lated, as I somerseted into the centre of the floor. My fears 

 were fortunately groundless : Denis merely awoke 

 me to inquire if I would drive three miles out of town 

 to see two scoundrels fight, who had quarrelled the 

 preceding night about a game of cribbage. Judge then, 

 dear George, after all these visitations, whether the 

 annunciation of a quiet bed at Tuam was not to me 

 ** a sound ecstatic ! " 



I swallowed a pint of rascally sherry without a murmur, 

 fortified it with a dose of diluted alcohol, yawned my way 

 to my room, found clean linen — no fire, and, in five 

 minutes, was buried in sleep " fast as a watchman." 



Presently arose a hum of many voices ; dreams and 

 phantasies disturbed my uneasy slumbers ; a noise like 

 distant music at times was faintly audible ; — at last a 

 crash of instruments awoke me, and the first quadrille 

 was in full execution within four feet of my distracted 

 head ! 



Heaven granted me patience, although I was on the 

 very brink of a country ball-room, and separated from 

 *' the gay throng '* only by the intervention of a slip 

 of deal board, while through the chinks you might have 

 passed the poker, or interchanged a parasol. 



I raised myself up on my elbow, and what a group was 

 there ! A short man, in a claret-coloured coat, was paired 

 with a stout gentlewoman in bright scarlet : she must 

 have been descended from " the giant " ; I would as 

 soon grapple with her in a waltz as commit myself 

 to the embraces of a boa-constrictor. Vis-d-vis was a 

 police-oflicer, in state uniform, with a pale beauty in 

 cerulean blue ; and a personage of immense calf, 

 in black tights, confronted a skeleton in nankeen 



