r Tom, but unfortunately
the affair got to be rumoured through the country--the inhabitants of the
village learned the indignity with which the Padre had been treated; they
addressed a memorial to Lord Wellington--inquiry was immediately
instituted--O'Flaherty was tried by court martial, and found guilty;
nothing short of the heaviest punishment that could be inflicted under
the circumstances would satisfy the Spaniards, and at that precise period
it was part of our policy to conciliate their esteem by every means in
our power. The commander-in-chief resolved to make what he called an
"example," and poor O'Flaherty--the life and soul of his regiment--the
darling of his mess, was broke, and pronounced incapable of ever serving
his Majesty again. Such was the event upon which my poor friend's
fortune in life seemed to hinge--he returned to Ireland, if not entirely
broken-hearted, so altered that his best friends scarcely knew him; his
"occupation was gone;" the mess had been his home; his brother officers
were to him in place of relatives, and he had lost all. His after life
was spent in rambling from one watering place to another, more with the
air of one who seeks to consume than enjoy his time; and with such a
change in appearance as the alteration in his fortune had effected, he
now stood before me, but altogether so different a man, that but for the
well-known tones of a voice that had often convulsed me with laughter, I
should scarcely have recognised him.

"Lorrequer, my old friend, I never thought of seeing you here--this is
indeed a piece of good luck."

"Why, Tom? You surely knew that the __ were in Ireland, didn't you?"

"To be sure. I dined with them only a few days ago, but they told me you
were off to Paris, to marry something superlatively beautiful, and most
enormously rich, the daughter of a duke, if I remember right; but certes,
they said your fortune was made, and I need not tell you, there was not a
man among them better pleased that I was to hear it."

"Oh! they said so, did they? Droll dogs--always quizzing--I wonder you
did not perceive the hoax--eh--very good, was it not?" This I poured out
in short broken sentences, blushing like scarlet, and fidgeting like a
school girl with downright nervousness.

"A hoax! devilish well done too,"--said Tom, "for old Carden believed
the whole story, and told me that he had obtained a six months' leave for
you to make your 'com.' and, moreover, said t