XLVI.

MURTAGH'S STORY CONTINUED--THE PRIEST, EXORCIST, AND THIMBLE-ENGRO--HOW
TO CHECK A REBELLION.

"I was telling ye, Shorsha, when ye interrupted me, that I found the
Pope, the rector, the sub-rector, and the almoner seated at the table,
the rector, with my pack of cards in his hand, about to deal out to the
Pope and the rest, not forgetting himself, for whom he intended all the
trump-cards no doubt. No sooner did they perceive me than they seemed
taken all aback; but the rector, suddenly starting up with the cards in
his hand, asked me what I did there, threatening to have me well
disciplined if I did not go about my business; 'I am come for my pack,'
said I, 'ye ould thaif, and to tell his Holiness how I have been treated
by ye;' then, going down on my knees before his Holiness, I said, 'Arrah,
now, your Holiness! will ye not see justice done to a poor boy who has
been sadly misused? The pack of cards which that old ruffian has in his
hand are my cards, which he has taken from me, in order to chate with.
Arrah! don't play with him, your Holiness, for he'll only chate ye--there
are dirty marks upon the cards which bear the trumps, put there in order
to know them by; and the ould thaif in daling out will give himself all
the good cards, and chate ye of the last farthing in your pocket; so let
them be taken from him, your Holiness, and given back to me; and order
him to lave the room, and then, if your Holiness be for an honest game,
don't think I'm the boy to baulk ye. I'll take the ould ruffian's place,
and play with ye till evening, and all night besides, and divil an
advantage will I take of the dirty marks, though I know them all, having
placed them on the cards myself.' I was going on in this way when the
ould thaif of a rector, flinging down the cards, made at me as if to kick
me out of the room, whereupon I started up, and said, 'If ye are for
kicking, sure two can play at that;' and then I kicked at his reverence,
and his reverence at me, and there was a regular scrimmage between us,
which frightened the Pope, who, getting up, said some words which I did
not understand, but which the cook afterwards told me were, 'English
extravagance, and this is the second edition;' for it seems that, a
little time before, his Holiness had been frightened in St. Peter's
Church by the servant of an English family, which those thaives of the
English religious house had been endeavouring to bring over to the
Catholic