SIGNS OF FISH. I47 



Colonel's wardrobe be not forthwith restored, with full 

 satisfaction for the insult, I hold the value of the out- 

 law's life to be not worth a pin's fee. 



Indeed, the whole esprit de corps is up — the multi* 

 tudinous idlers of the Lodge are concocting schemes 

 of vengeance. The honour of the *' ancient house '* 

 is at stake ; and the very women are roused to action. 

 Old Antony himself is not supine — he does not, like 

 Diogenes at Sinope, contemplate the general activity 

 with indifference ; while all besides are turning the 

 secular arm against the delinquent, the Otter-killer will 

 call in the assistance of the Church, and, by the blessing 

 of God, he will have Mr. Burke cursed in two chapels 

 next Sunday, and in a style, too, that he expects shall 

 give universal satisfaction to all concerned. 



Nor am I, though unassailed in dignity or effects, 

 upon a bed of roses. Who shall say where this business 

 will terminate ? We shall exchange deer-shooting for 

 robber-hunting ; and night and the mountains being 

 unfavourable to identity of the person, I may be shot 

 by mistake for an outlaw, or find myself in some ravine 

 tete-d-tete with Mr. Burke ! I plead guilty to consti- 

 tutional nervousness, and for the last hour my kinsman 

 and his visitor have been seeking a parallel case in a 

 number of outrages, that are quite sufficient to ruin a 

 man's rest for the winter. What memories they have ! 

 There has not been a house robbed for the last century 

 with whose localities they are not as well acquainted 

 as the builder ; and in murder-cases they display an 

 anatomical experience that is surprising ! Hennessey, 

 who seldom shows, has been eternally with us since the 

 cloth was lifted, and having received his final instruc- 

 tions (I hope), has disappeared. Lord 1 the tall, gaunt, 

 care-worn, homicidal look of the man, as with a double- 



