irical tongue awed him into
submission to the present punishment. He sneaked into bed, therefore,
and his deep potations ensured him immediate sleep, from which he
awoke, however, in the middle of the night in torture, from the deep
scratches inflicted upon him by every kick of old Growling. At last
poor Reddy could stand it no longer, and the earliest hour of dawn
revealed him to the doctor putting on his clothes, swearing like a
trooper at one moment, and at the next apostrophising the genius of
gentility. "What it is to have to do with a person that is not a
gentleman!" he exclaimed, as he pulled on one leg of his trousers.

"What is the matter with you?" asked old Jack from the bed.

"The matter, sir, is, that I'm going."

"Is it at this hour! Tut, man, don't be a fool. Get into bed again."

"Never, sir, with _you_ at least. I have seldom slept two in a bed, Dr.
Growling, for my gentlemanly habits forbid it; but when circumstances
have obliged me, it has been with gentlemen--_gentlemen_, doctor," and
he laid a stress on the word--"gentlemen, sir, who cut their toe-nails.
Sir, I am a serious sufferer by your coarse habits; you have scratched
me, sir, nearly to death. I am one gore of blood----"

"Tut, man! 't was not my nails scratched you; it was only my spurs I
put on going to bed, to keep you at a distance from me; you were so
disgustingly drunk, my _gentleman_!--look there!" and he poked his leg
out of bed, and there, sure enough, Reddy saw a spur buckled: and,
dumb-foundered at this evidence of the doctor's atrocity, he snatched
up his clothes, and rushed from the room, as from the den of a bear.

Murphy twisted a beneficial result to M'Garry out of the night's
riotous frolic at his expense; for, in the morning, taking advantage of
the report of the inquest which he knew must have reached Neck-or-Nothing
Hall, he made a communication to O'Grady, so equivocally worded that the
Squire fell into the trap. The note ran as follows:--

"Sir,--You must be aware that your act of yesterday has raised a
strong feeling in the country against you, and that so flagrant a
violation of the laws cannot fail to be visited with terrible severity
upon you: for, though your position in rank places you far above the
condition of the unfortunate man on whom you wreaked your vengeance,
you know, sir, that in the eye of the law you are equal, and the
shield of justice protects the peasant as well as th