oath, breaking
through all his customary reserve and stiffness, and flinging his
cocked-hat on the middle of the table, piteously, 'A fellow that can't
swim a yard _will_ go by way of saving a great--a large gentleman, like
Captain Cluffe, from drowning, and he's pulled in himself; and so--bless
my soul! what's to be done?'

So the colonel broke into a lamentation, and a fury, and a wonder.
'Cluffe and Puddock, the two steadiest officers in the corps! He had a
devilish good mind to put Cluffe under arrest--the idiots--Puddock--he
was devilish sorry. There wasn't a more honourable'--_et cetera_. In
fact, a very angry and pathetic funeral oration, during which,
accompanied by Doctor Toole, Lieutenant Puddock, in person, entered; and
the colonel stopped short with his eyes and mouth very wide open, and
said the colonel very sternly.

'I--I'm glad to see, Sir, you're safe: and--and--I suppose, I shall hear
now that _Cluffe's_ drowned?' and he stamped the emphasis on the floor.

While all this was going on, some of the soldiers had actually got into
Dublin. The tide was in, and the water very high at 'Bloody Bridge.' A
hat, near the corner, was whisking round and round, always trying to get
under the arch, and always, when on the point, twirled round again into
the corner--an image of the 'Flying Dutchman' and hope deferred. A
watchman's crozier hooked the giddy thing. It was not a military hat;
but they brought it back, and the captive was laid in the
guard-room--mentioned by me because we've seen that identical hat
before.

CHAPTER LI.

HOW CHARLES NUTTER'S TEA, PIPE, AND TOBACCO-BOX WERE ALL SET OUT FOR HIM
IN THE SMALL PARLOUR AT THE MILLS; AND HOW THAT NIGHT WAS PASSED IN THE
HOUSE BY THE CHURCH-YARD.

Mrs. Nutter and Mrs. Sturk, the wives of the two men who most hated one
another within the vicinage of Chapelizod--natural enemies, holding
aloof one from another, and each regarding the other in a puzzled way,
with a sort of apprehension and horror, as the familiar of that worst
and most formidable of men--her husband--were this night stricken with a
common fear and sorrow.

Darkness descended on the Mills and the river--a darkness deepened by
the umbrageous trees that grouped about the old gray house in which poor
Mrs. Nutter lay so ill at ease. Moggy carried the jingling tray of
tea-things into Nutter's little study, and lighted his candles, and set
the silver snuffers in the dish, and thought she hear