20 STRAY-AWAYS 



without a variation the progress of the question down 

 the Hnc of faces till only three or four remain, and here, 

 where least expected, a volcanic upheaval shatters 

 the smooth unanimity. 



Fourth from the end sits the Delegate, with an 

 expression which, to onlookers less confident of their 

 man, might have been portentous, biding his time in 

 silence, while the accumulating verdict travels to him. 

 His answer is not contained in one word nor in a few ; 

 it is declaimed with excitement amounting to fierce- 

 ness, and is to the effect that at least his vote shall 

 not sanction the contemplated tyranny. Persuasive 

 remonstrance is trampled on and swallowed up by 

 a demand as to whether it is at the mandate of the 

 National League that the grass grows up through the 

 ground for the use of cattle, and whether it lies with 

 that body to deprive it of its mission. Receiving no 

 answer, he does not insist on one, but, snatching his 

 hat from the altar-rails, he walks down through the 

 crowded chapel, and out of it with, perhaps, as great 

 an air as any of Ireland's representatives have attained 

 to when quitting the House of Commons in obedience 

 to its decree, and followed, as may be conjectured, 

 by a congregational gaze of extreme blankness. 



It might be supposed that such an episode would 

 have been followed by results of a marked kind — 

 results the reverse of pleasing to the Delegate and his 

 possessions, with perhaps, on his part, a reactionary 

 . hurling of himself into the camp of the opposite party ; 

 or that, at best, his defection from his own would 

 have been passed over as a forgivable eccentricity, a 

 discordancy which would be easily drowned in the 

 patriot pronouncements. But supposition is marvel- 

 lously set at naught. The Delegate sits by his window 

 and reads his newspaper as of old, without let or 

 hindrance, or any black looks cast aslant at him by 



