144 WILD SPORTS OF THE WEST. 



to disappear. A revenue cruiser, that had been long 

 blockaded in Westport Bay, took heart and ventured 

 out. The enemy was out of sight, and with a clear sea, 

 old Morris rounded Achil Head. When the scarecrow 

 vanishes, it is marvellous how rapidly one's courage is re- 

 kindled ; and, too late, the Nepean discovered that the 

 odds between herself and the privateer were not so des- 

 perate. In point of men and metal the Fox was indeed 

 overwhelming, but still, steady discipline and close 

 fighting might do wonders. Morning dawned — and its 

 first light showed the infernal Fox but two short miles to 

 windward! Away went the cutter, and away went the 

 privateer. With singular audacity the Fox followed 

 into the Bay, came up hand-over-hand, and gained 

 upon the cruiser until the long two-and-thirty, which 

 the Yankee mounted amidships, began to throw its 

 shot to a most alarming proximity. The Bull's Mouth 

 was before, and a rakish schooner that, to use a fancy 

 phrase, " would not be denied," was astern ; — there was 

 no alternative, and for the first, and most probably the 

 last time, the King's bunting sought safety within the 

 Sound of Achil. Finding her water lessen — for she had 

 cxtually crossed the Ridge Point before she hauled her 

 wind — the Fox abandoned the pursuit, and left the Irish 

 coast for America, where she duly arrived, after a daring 

 and destructive, but a very unprofitable cruise. 



Safely landed at the Lodge, — but all is in an uproar ! 

 Colonel Dwyer, an honoured and expected visitor, has 

 arrived in safety, but he comes minus his portmanteau, 

 which some delinquent, neither having the fear of 

 hanging, or my kinsman's wrath before his eyes, 

 abstracted from Andy Bawn, to whom its safe delivery 

 was entrusted. Nothing can surpass the surprise and 



