SSING VISIT TO KILLALA

I found a very pleasant party assembled around the bishop's
breakfast-table at Killala. The bishop and his family were all there,
with Charost and his staff, and some three or four other officers
from Ballina. Nothing could be less constrained, more easy, or more
agreeable, than the tone of intimacy which in a few days had grown up
between them. A cordial good feeling seemed to prevail on every subject,
and even the reserve which might be thought natural on the momentous
events then happening was exchanged for a most candid and frank
discussion of all that was going forward, which, I must own, astonished
as much as it gratified me.

The march on Castlebar, the choice of the mountain-road, 'which led past
the position occupied by the Royalists, the attack and capture of the
artillery, had all to be related by me for the edification of such
as were not conversant with French; and I could observe that however
discomfited by the conduct of the militia, they fully relied on the
regiments of the line and the artillery. It was amusing, too, to see
with what pleasure they listened to all our disparagement of the Irish
volunteers.

Every instance we gave of insubordination or disobedience delighted
them, while our own blundering attempts to manage the people, the absurd
mistakes we fell into, and the endless misconceptions of their character
and habits, actually convulsed them with laughter.

'Of course,' said the bishop to us, 'you are prepared to hear that
there is no love lost between you, and that they are to the full as
dissatisfied with you as you are dissatisfied with them?'

'Why, what can they complain of?' asked Charost, smiling; 'we gave them
the place of honour in the very last engagement!'

'Very true, you did so, and they reaped all the profit of the situation.
Monsieur Tiernay had just told the havoc that grape and round shot
scattered amongst the poor creatures. However, it is not of this they
complain--it is their miserable fare, the raw potatoes, their beds in
open fields and highways, while the French, they say, eat of the best
and sleep in blankets; they do not understand this inequality, and
perhaps it is somewhat hard to comprehend.'

'Patriotism ought to be proud of such little sacrifices,' said Charost,
with an easy laugh; 'besides, it is only a passing endurance: a month
hence, less, perhaps, will see us dividing the spoils, and revelling in
the conquest of Irish independe