378 WILD SPORTS OF THE WEST. 



physiognomist would seek in his handsome countenance 

 for some trace of that fierce and turbulent disposition 

 which marked his short and miserable career. No one, 

 when he pleased it, could delight society more ; and 

 with the fair sex he was proverbially successful. It 

 is said that gallantry, however, was not his forte, and 

 that he seldom used his persuasive powers with women, 

 but for objects ultimately pecuniary or ambitious. 



Added to his external advantages, he was an educated 

 man ; and that he possessed no mean literary talent 

 may be inferred from his celebrated ** Apology," which 

 is neatly and spiritedly written. 



His courage was undoubted. In Paris and London 

 he was noted as a duellist ; and in Mayo, his personal 

 encounters are still remembered. His duel with Doctor 

 Martin, his encounter with Caesar French, the most 

 notorious fire-eaters of the day, placed him foremost 

 in that class. He was, moreover, a dead shot, and 

 reported to be one of the ablest swordsmen in the 

 kingdom. As a sportsman he was justly celebrated. 

 He was an elegant horseman, and his desperate riding 

 was the theme of fox-hunters for many a year. No 

 park-wall or flooded river stopped him — and to this 

 day, leaps that he surmounted, and points where he 

 crossed the Turlough river, are pointed out by the 

 peasantry. 



The dark acts which clouded his memory, and his 

 unhappy fate, are generally known ; and considering 

 the other traits of his strange and mingling character 

 the apology oflfered by his friends on the score of 

 occasional insanity, is not improbable. One circum- 

 stance would strengthen this conclusion. He was 

 interred by night, and with so much privacy, in the 



