148 WILD SPORTS OF THE WEST. 



gun across his arm, and a case of pistols projecting from 

 his coat pockets, he took the wine his patron gave him ! 

 but, " chacun a son gout^'' — my kinsman would not 

 lose him for a thousand, while his very look gives me the 

 horrors ! Even the piper appears to have caught the 

 general infection : he has been lilting a full hour — not 

 a jig or strathspey, but love-lorn ditties, and the most 

 lamentable compositions that ever issued from the 

 bag or chanter. 



Would I were in England again ! for what is matri- 

 mony to manslaughter ? I have been for a moment out 

 to breathe the cool sea-breeze, and passing the window 

 peeped into that refugium peccatorum^ the kitchen. The 

 keeper is flinting a blunderbuss ! There is security in 

 Terracina contrasted with this cabin, and the Abruzzi 

 is a land of Goshen compared with the mountains of 

 Ballycroy ! I wish I were in bed ; and why there — 

 to dream of everything felonious ! I may as well submit 

 with Turkish endurance — it is the will of Allah. The 

 Colonel replenishes the fire, apportioning turf and bog 

 deal in such scientific proportion, that it is evident that 

 he is making himself up for a wet evening ; and the cork 

 our host is now extracting will be merely avant-courier 

 to three flasks which I see lurking in the cooper. Oh, 

 that a deputation from the Temperance Society would 

 drop in ! But why complain ? — 'tis useless. The 

 Colonel has discharged a bumper to the speedy demo- 

 lition of Mr. Burke ! Nor has he forgotten to replenish 

 again. The man is honest — a person that one might 

 safely drink with in the dark. He clears his throat, 

 and that cough preliminary is the prologue of a story. 

 I must, in common courtesy, be attentive. This long 

 and steady pinch is alarming, and we are on the brjnk 

 gf some desperate detail ! 



