146 WILD SPORTS OF THE WEST. 



I wish the value of the Colonel's assets could be 

 ascertained, and that I dared liquidate the amount. An 

 earthquake, I think, would not have created half the 

 sensation. My kinsman is dreadfully irate — his feudal 

 power is shaken to the centre, and either he or Mr. 

 Burke must leave Ballycroy It is quite evident that he 

 tacitly permitted the outlaw to conceal himself in this 

 neighbourhood, and considered that he existed but by 

 his sufferance. There is a strange dash of barbarism 

 among the old proprietors still. To hunt a felon down, 

 who acknowledges the supremacy of the master, would 

 be infra dignita tern. The good old system would then 

 be at an end — and, in time, even a bailiff might pass 

 what has been the Ultima Thule of the law, and live. 

 My cousin is aware of this. He feels that the rights 

 and immunities of his modern Alsatia must not be 

 lightly compromised. His rent-roll may be small, 

 but he can boast, as Dick Martin did of Connemara, 

 that " here, thank God ! the King's writ is not worth 

 a half-penny." Hence, the impudence of Mr. Burke 

 is intolerable. I remember hearing this word used 

 in a court of justice in a most curious sense. A man was 

 on trial, capitally indicted for murder. The chief 

 witness on his examination detailed the leading incidents 

 — his being awakened by cries of help, rising, striking a 

 light, opening his door, and finding a man dead upon 

 the threshold. *' And what did you do next, my 

 friend ? " interrogated the Crown lawyer. '' Why," 

 replied the witness, with amazing sang froid, *' I called 

 out, * Are any of ye there that kilt the boy .? I'll 

 give a thirteen to him who'll tell me who it was that 

 had the impudence to murder a man at my door ! ' '* 

 An embassy will be despatched to Mr. Burke, and if the 



