You for
sendin' a fool on a message, or me for deliverin' it."
"Was that all that happened?"
"No, sir. He said," added the fool, with bitter sarcasm, alluding to
a duel, in which the Squire's character had not come off with flying
colors--"he said, sir, that whin you have another challenge to fight,
you may get sick agin for threepence to the poticarry."
This having been the manner in which the Squire was said to have evaded
the duel, it is unnecessary to say that Art's readiness to refresh his
memory on the subject prevented him from being received at the Big House
in future.
Reader, remember that we only intended to give you a sketch of Phelim
O'Toole's courtship. We will, however, go so far beyond our original
plan, as to apprise you of his fate.
When it became known in the parish that he was in jail, under a charge
of felony, Sally Mattery abandoned all hopes of securing him as a
husband. The housekeeper felt suitable distress, and hoped, should the
poor boy be acquitted, that he might hould up his head wid any o' them.
Phelim, through the agency of his father, succeeded in getting ten
guineas from her, to pay the lawyers for defending him; not one penny of
which he applied to the purpose for which he obtained it. The expenses
of his defence were drawn from the Ribbon fund, and the Irish reader
cannot forget the eloquent and pathetic, appeal made by his counsel to
the jury, on his behalf, and the strength with which the fact of his
being the whole support of a helpless father and mother was stated.
Pages:
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154