lection; and any other
association, where a painful or melancholy thought is clothed with a
garb of joy or pleasure, will strike us more deeply in proportion as
the contrast is strong. On seeing the sun or moon struggling through the
darkness of surrounding clouds, I confess, although you may smile, that
I feel for the moment a diminution of enjoyment--something taken, as it
were, from the sum of my happiness.

"Ere the quarrel commenced, you might see a dark and hateful glare
scowling from the countenances of the two parties, as they viewed
and approached each other in the street--the eye was set in deadly
animosity, and the face marked with an ireful paleness, occasioned at
once by revenge and apprehension. Groups were silently hurrying with an
eager and energetic step to their places of rendezvous, grasping their
weapons more closely, or grinding their teeth in the impatience of their
fury. The veterans on each side were surrounded by their respective
followers, anxious to act under their direction; and the very boys
seemed to be animated with a martial spirit, much more eager than that
of those who had greater experience in party quarrels.

"Jem Finigan's public-house was the head-quarters and rallying-point
of the Ribbonmen; the Orangemen assembled in that of Joe Sherlock, the
master of an Orange lodge. About six o'clock the crowd in the street
began gradually to fall off to the opposite ends of the town--the Roman
Catholics towards the north, and the Protestants towards the south.
Carson's window, from which I was observing their motions, was exactly
half way between them, so that I had a distinct view of both. At this
moment I noticed Denis Kelly coming forward from the closely condensed
mass formed by the Ribbonmen: he advanced with his cravat off, to the
middle of the vacant space between the parties, holding a fine oak
cudgel in his hand. He then stopped, and addressing the Orangemen, said,

"'Where's Vengeance and his crew now? Is there any single Orange villain
among you that dare come down and meet me here like a man? Is John
Grimes there? for if he is, before we begin to take you out of a face,
to hunt you altogether out of the town, ye Orange villains I would be
glad that he'd step down to Denis Kelly here for two or three minutes;
I'll not keep him longer.'

"There was now a stir and a murmur among the Orangemen, as if a rush was
about to take place towards Denis; but Grimes, whom I saw endeavoring to