uted I again, and no answer was returned, when suddenly
the huge object wheeled rapidly around, and without waiting for any further
parley, made for the thicket.

The tramp of a horse's feet now assured me as to the nature of at least
part of the spectacle, when click went the trigger behind me, and the
trooper's ball rushed whistling through the brushwood. In a moment the
whole party were up and stirring.

"This way, lads!" cried I, as drawing my sabre, I dashed into the pine
wood.

For a few moments all was dark as midnight; but as we proceeded farther, we
came out upon a little open space which commanded the plain beneath for a
great extent.

"There it goes!" said one of the men, pointing to a narrow, beaten path,
in which the tall figure moved at a slow and stately pace, while still the
same wild gestures of heads and limbs continued.

"Don't fire, men! don't fire!" I cried, "but follow me," as I set forward
as hard as I could.

As we neared it, the frantic gesticulations grew more and more remarkable,
while some stray words, which we half caught, sounded like English in our
ears. We were now within pistol-shot distance, when suddenly the horse--for
that much at least we were assured of--stumbled and fell forward,
precipitating the remainder of the object headlong into the road.

In a second we were upon the spot, when the first sounds which greeted me
were the following, uttered in an accent by no means new to me:--

"Oh, blessed Virgin! Wasn't it yourself that threw me in the mud, or my
nose was done for? Shaugh, Shaugh, my boy, since we are taken, tip them the
blarney, and say we're generals of division!"

I need not say with what a burst of laughter I received this very original
declaration.

"I ought to know that laugh," cried a voice I at once knew to be my friend
O'Shaughnessy's. "Are you Charles O'Malley, by any chance in life?"

"The same, Major, and delighted to meet you; though, faith, we were near
giving you a rather warm reception. What, in the Devil's name, did you
represent, just now?"

"Ask Maurice, there, bad luck to him. I wish the Devil had him when he
persuaded me into it."

"Introduce me to your friend," replied the other, rubbing his shins as he
spoke. "Mr. O'Mealey,"--so he called me,--"I think. Happy to meet you; my
mother was a Ryan of Killdooley, married to a first cousin of your father's
before she took Mr. Quill, my respected progenitor. I'm Dr. Quill of the
48th, more c