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deep and irreparable wrong--and as a Frenchman you are ready to avenge it.' Although I had no very precise notion, either as to the extent of the hardships done me, nor in what way I was to demand the reparation, I gave the assent he seemed to expect. 'You are well acquainted with the language, I believe?' continued he. 'I can read and speak English tolerably well, sir.' 'But I speak of Irish, boy--of the language which is spoken by your fellow-countrymen,' said he rebukingly. 'I have always heard, sir, that this has fallen into disuse, and is little known save among the peasantry in a few secluded districts.' He seemed impatient as I said this, and referred once more to the paper before him, from whose minutes he appeared to have been speaking. 'You must be in error, boy. I find here that the nation is devotedly attached to its traditions and literature, and feels no injury deeper than the insulting substitution of a foreign tongue for their own noble language.' 'Of myself I know nothing, sir; the little I have learned was acquired when a mere child.' 'Ah, then, you probably forget, or may never have heard the fact; but it is as I tell you. This, which I hold here, is the report of a highly distinguished and most influential personage, who lays great stress upon the circumstance. I am sorry, Tiernay, very sorry, that you are unacquainted with the language.' He continued for some minutes to brood over this disappointment, and at last returned to the paper before him. 'The geography of the country--what knowledge have you on that subject?' 'No more, sir, than I may possess of other countries, and merely learned from maps.' 'Bad again,' muttered he to himself. 'Madgett calls these "essentials"; but we shall see.' Then addressing me, he said, 'Tiernay, the object of my present interrogatory is to inform you that the Directory is about to send an expedition to Ireland to assist in the liberation of that enslaved people. It has been suggested that young officers and soldiers of Irish descent might render peculiar service to the cause, and I have selected you for an opportunity which will convert these worsted epaulettes into bullion.' This at least was intelligible news, and now I began to listen with more attention. 'There is a report,' said he, laying down before me a very capacious manuscript, 'which you will carefully peruse. Here are the latest pamphlets setting forth the state of publ
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