come, or what was
the origin of the warm attachment between us, they were too lazy and too
indifferent to trouble their heads about the matter. They were satisfied
that there would be a 'shindy' somewhere, and somebody's bones would get
broken, and even that much was a pleasant and reassuring consideration;
while others of keener mould revelled in plans of private vengeance
against this landlord or that agent--small debts of hatred to be paid
off in the day of general reckoning.

From the first moment nothing could exceed the tone of fraternal feeling
between our soldiers and the people. Without any means of communicating
their thoughts by speech, they seemed to acquire an instinctive
knowledge of each other in an instant. If the peasant was poor, there
was no limit to his liberality in the little he had. He dug up his
half-ripe potatoes, he unroofed his cabin to furnish straw for litter,
he gave up his only beast, and was ready to kill his cow, if asked,
to welcome us. Much of this was from the native, warm, and impulsive
generosity of their nature, and much, doubtless, had its origin in the
bright hopes of future recompense inspired by the eloquent appeals of
Neal Kerrigan, who, mounted on an old white mare, rode about on every
side, addressing the people in Irish, and calling upon them to give all
aid and assistance to 'the expedition.'

The difficulty of the landing was much increased by the small space of
level ground which intervened between the cliffs and the sea, and of
which now the thickening crowd filled every spot. This and the miserable
means of conveyance for our baggage delayed us greatly, so that, with
a comparatively small force, it was late in the afternoon before we had
all reached the shore.

We had none of us eaten since morning, and were not sorry, as we crowned
the heights, to hear the drums beat for 'cooking.' In an inconceivably
short, time fires blazed along the hills, around which, in motley
groups, stood soldiers and peasantry mingled together, while the work
of cooking and eating went briskly on, amid hearty laughter and all the
merriment that mutual mistakes and misconceptions occasioned. It was a
new thing for French soldiers to bivouac in a friendly country, and find
themselves the welcome guests of a foreign people; and certainly, the
honours of hospitality, however limited the means, could not have been
performed with more of courtesy or good-will. Paddy gave his 'all,' with
a genero