re their own
than ours; so meet to-morrow, my lad^at Dycer's, at twelve o'clock, and
bring me anything that can speak for your character." As he said these
few words he brushed the crowd to one side with his whip, and forcing
his way, with the air of a man who would not be denied, left the place.

"And he 's laving the crayture without givin' him a farden!" cried one
of the mob, who suddenly saw all the glorious fabric of a carouse and a
drunken bout disappear like a mirage.

"Oh, the 'tarnal vagabond" shouted another, more indignantly; "to desart
the child that a-way,--and he that won the race for him!"

"Will yez see the little crayture wronged?" said another, who appeared
by his pretentious manner to be a practised street orator. "Will yez
lave the dissolute orphan--" he meant "desolate"--"to be chayted out
of his pater money? Are yez men at all? or are yez dirty slaves of the
bloody 'stokessy' that's murderin' ould Ireland'?"

"We'll take charge of the orphan, and of you too, my smart fellow, if
you don't brush off pretty lively!" said a policeman, as, followed by
two others, he pushed through the crowd with that cool determination
that seems to be actually an instinct with them. Then, laying a strong
hand on my collar, he went on: "How did you come by that mare, my lad?"

"She belongs to Captain De Courcy, of the Royal Hospital," said I, doing
my utmost to seem calm and collected.

"We know that already; what we want to hear is, what brought you here
with her? It was n't Captain De Courcy's orders?"

"No, sir. I was told to hold her for him, and--and--"

"And so you rode off with her,--out with it, it saves time, my lad. Now,
let me ask you another question: Have you any notion of the crime you
have just committed? Do you know that it amounts to horse-stealing? And
do you know what the penalty is for that offence?"

"No, sir; I know neither one nor the other," said I, resolutely; "and,
if I did, it doesn't matter much. As well to live upon prison diet as to
starve in the streets!"

"He's a bad 'un; I told ye that!" remarked another of the policemen.
"Take him off, Grimes!" and so, amid a very general but subdued murmur
of pity and condolence from the crowd, I was dragged away on one side,
while the mare was led off on another.

It was a terrible tumble down, from being a hero to an embryo felon;
from being cheered by the populace, to being collared by a policeman!
As we went along towards Dublin on a ja