nd it is unnecessary, therefore, to say,
that the hostility against him was spread over a wide and populous
district. This was by no means the case with O'Driscol, who was much
more the object of amusement to the people than of enmity. The mask of
bluster, and the cowardly visage it covered, were equally well known
in the neighborhood; and as the Irish possess a quick and almost
instinctive perception of character, especially among their superiors,
we need scarcely say that they played off, on more than one occasion,
many ludicrous pranks at his expense. He was certainly a man of great
importance, at least in his own opinion, or if he did understand
himself, he wished, at all events, to be considered so in the eyes of
others. He possessed, however, much more cunning than any one would feel
inclined to attribute to him, and powers of flattery that were rarely
ever equalled. He was, in fact, one of the few men who could administer
that nauseating dose, without permitting the person who received it to
become sensible that he did so. He had scraped together some wealth by
the good oldsystem of jobbing--had got himself placed upon the Grand
Panel of the county,' and ultimately, by some corrupt influence at
an election, contrived to have the merit of returning the government
candidate, a service which procured him a magistracy. O'Driscol was very
fond of magnifying trifles, and bestowing, a character of importance
upon matters that were of the utmost insignificance. For instance, if
a poor decrepit devil, starving in a hut, and surrounded by destitution
and beggary, were to be arrested for some petty misdemeanor, he would
mount his horse with vast pomp, and proceed at the head of twelve or
eighteen armed policemen to make his caption. But, on the
contrary, whenever any desperate and intrepid character was to be
apprehended--some of those fellows like the notorious Ryan (Puck), who
always carried a case of pistols or a blunderbuss about them, or perhaps
both---our valiant magistrate was either out of the way or had a visit
from the gout--a complaint which he was very fond of parading, because
it is one of aristocratic pretensions, but one, of which, we are
honestly bound to say, he had never experienced a single twitch.

We have already stated that he had received a threatening notice, and
attempted to describe the state of conflicting emotions into which it
threw him. We forgot to state, however, that he had before received
s