the parlour at Ballycloran, he asked
after Thady, and it will be necessary to explain why he did so; the
terms on which the two men stood towards each other not being such
as to render it probable that either should be very anxious for the
presence of the other.

It had come to the knowledge of Denis McGovery that Brady had asked
to the wedding a lot of men from Drumleesh, and some also from
Mohill--characters with whom Denis was not apt to consort himself,
and whom he looked on as paupers and rapparees. He had also made out,
it is presumed with the aid of his affianced, that some other motive
was probably ensuring their attendance than merely that of doing
honour to his, Denis's, nuptials. Pat Brady was not likely to have
made a confidant of his sister or of Denis on the occasion; but
nevertheless, the bridegroom had discovered that the meeting was,
to some extent, to be a political one, and moreover, that Thady
Macdermot was expected to be there.

Now McGovery, although it must be presumed that, in common with all
Irishmen of the lower order, he conceived that he was to a certain
degree injured and oppressed by the operation of the existing laws,
nevertheless had always thought it the wiser course to be with the
laws, bad as they might be, than against them. When, therefore, he
learnt that the brothers of the men whom Ussher had put into prison
were to be of the party, and that many of their more immediate
neighbours would be there, and remembered also that Captain Ussher
himself had promised to come to the "divarsion," mighty fears
suggested themselves to him, and he began to dread that the occasion
would be taken for offering some personal injury to the latter! In
which case, might not all be implicated?--and among the number that
dear person for whom Denis felt the tenderest regard--viz., himself?

Actuated by these apprehensions, Denis, on the morning of the
wedding, had gone to Ussher to unfold his budget of dreadful
news,--to assure the Captain that his only object "was to get himself
married," and to see that the "pigs and the thrifle of change were
all right,"--and strongly to advise the Captain to stay away; "not
that it wouldn't be a great honer for a poor boy like him to see his
honer down there, for he had the greatest rispect in life for him,
and all that wore the King's sword; but there war no knowing what
them boys might be afther when they got the dhrink in them."

Ussher thanked Denis for his com