that more than any thing else contributed to appease
the inflamed passions of the group, who, shocked at the sacrilegious
insult they had committed, immediately sounded a parley, and united to
reinstate poor Teddy O'Rafferty in his former situation. This was the
signal for Horace and myself to proceed round to the front door, and
pretending we were strangers excited by curiosity, succeeded, by a
little well-timed flattery and a small trifle to drink our good healths,
in freeing the assailants from all the horrors of a watch-house, and
eventually of restoring peace and unanimity. It was now past midnight;
leaving therefore poor Barney O'Finn to attend mass, and pay the last
sad tribute to his departed relative, on the morning of the morrow
we once more bent our steps towards home, laughing as we went at the
strange recollections of the wake, the row, and last appearance of Teddy
O'Rafferty.{1}

REQUIESCAT IN PACE.

1 As the reader might not think this story complete without
gome account of the concluding ceremonies, I have
ascertained from Barney that his cousin Teddy was quietly
borne on the shoulders of his friends to the church of St.
Paneras, where he was safely deposited with his mother-
earth, a bit of a bull, by the by; and after the mourners
had made three circles round his ashes, and finished the
ceremony by a most delightful howl and prayers said over the
crossed spades, they all retired peaceably home, moderately
laden with the juice of the _crature_.

[Illustration: page033]

THE CYPRIAN'S BALL,

OR

Sketches of Characters

AT THE VENETIAN CARNIVAL.

Scene.--Argyll Rooms.

~34~~

"Hymen ushers the lady Astrea,

The jest took hold of Latona the cold,
Ceres the brown, with bright Cytherea,
Thetis the wanton, Bellona the bold;
Shame-faced Aurora
With witty Pandora,
And Maia with Flora did company bear;"
(And many 'tis stated
Went there to be mated,
Who all their lives have been hunting the fair. )

Blackmantle, Transit, Eglantine, and Crony's Visit to the
Venetian Carnival--Exhibits--Their Char-acters drawn from
the Life--General Trinket, the M.C.--Crony's singidar
Anecdote of the great Earl of Chesterfield, and Origin of
the Debouchettes--The Omissions in the Wilson Memoirs
supplied--Biographical Reminiscences of the