remembrance of the hand which placed it there shall preserve it inviolate. But am I sentimentalizing with a giddy girl, while Monteville secures the electors, and gains the 'golden opinions' of—”

"Tinmen and Tallow-chandlers," said Lady Constantia.

"Go, tempter," and he playfully patted her cheek, while she gracefully saluted the pink politicians (who were all respectfully uncovered), and stepped into the carriage.

"Adieu, Henry; I mean to be in town tomorrow-remember Miss Moreen's."

The election commenced on the following morning; crowds of country gentlemen came fast in, with their respective flocks of freeholders. The usual formalities were observedthe candidates proposed in one bad speech, and seconded in another, and the polling opened. Five days passed over, and the general history of an Irish election will describe them. Clamour and confusion-prevarication and perjury occupied the day; riot, drunkenness, and disorder, consumed the night. Old registries were ransacked, and persons who for years

before had been reposing peaceably in their graves, good-naturedly got up on the occasion to vote for Lord Monteville. Every artifice was resorted to; money plentifully used to procure the venal, and threats and promises to induce the better classes. The contest was carried on with unusual bitterness, as the ordinary irritability of opposition was heightened by political rancour. From the violence of party, O'Hara was anxious to keep Henry as much at home as possible, while the son, alarmed for his parent's safety, seldom left the town.

On the sixth day, an attempt was made by the Aristocrats to get a priest personated. The fellow who enacted the Clargy appeared arrayed in a huge bushy wig, and coat of dingy black, and swore without hesitation that he was Father Anthony O'Toole; but, unluckily for the reverend representative of the departed friar, his brother happened to be present, and declared that the said Anthony must have been badly used, as they had buried him fifteen years before. This scandalous subornation drew forth strong reprobation from O'Hara, which Captain Felton, who was watching an opportunity,

contrived to turn to account; for, in course of an altercation which ensued, he gave a direct lie to the Major, and completed the insult by striking him in the face with an orange. At this time Henry was sitting with Lady Loftus and her daughter at Miss Moreen's, and hearing some noise in the street, learned from a passenger the outrage which had been offered to his father. In vain Lady Loftus implored him to be patient. In vain Constantia, with pale cheek and faltering voice, entreated him not to be rash. He bounded down the stairs, and in a minute was mingled with the crowd.

The Castle Carra tenantry were in a terrific uproar, threatening death and destruction to Felton and his party; and having just then found that the object of vengeance had eluded their fury, by escaping through a side-door, their madness was not to be controlled. Henry suspecting that the Captain would retreat to the Loftus Arms, and remembering that a narrow lane led to the inn-yard, and saved the long detour of the public street, went in pursuit of the ruffian. On emerging from the alley, he perceived him retreating to

the inn, and snatching a whip from a lounging post-boy, he seized him in his powerful grasp and proceeded to exercise him without mercy. Nothing but a sally of his friends from the Loftus Arms, prevented him from rivalling the fate of Marsyas of old, and suffering death from flagellation; however, before the rescue was effected, a challenge to fight in half an hour was given and accepted.

An election terminating without a few duels, would then have been anomalous, and country gentlemen, when they left their homes to select their representative, had the precaution to provide themselves with approved weapons. Henry, therefore, had no difficulty in procuring pistols and an experienced friend; and Mr. Moutray promised to call on him at his private lodgings in due time, and conduct him to the ground.

Robert Moutray was a gentleman of ancient family and small estate, attached to no profession, and residing where his fathers bad lived for centuries. He was an honourable man, and generally respected; and, from a particular fondness for politics and bustle, held a place

among the county leaders far above what his small fortune would warrant him to look to. He was a zealot in politics; and, as he entered heart and soul into whatever cause he adopted, from his determined courage and unwearied ardour, joined to a caustic method of expression, he was generally distinguished by the sobriquet of "Bitter Bob." Although past the meridian of life, and the father of a numerous family, his active, political habits were unsubdued by years, and he accepted the invitation with pleasure, to accompany Henry to the field.

Short as the intervening time was, young O'Hara wished anxiously for its accomplishment; he hoped the affair would terminate before his father was apprized of his situation, as he could well fancy a parent's sufferings while his child was exposed to danger, and his fate still rested in the balance. He tried to reach his own retired lodgings; but to pass Miss Moreen's without being observed was impossible, as Lady Constantia was leaning from the window, apparently watching for his

return.

VOL. I.

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