magistrates in your
county."

O'Connor had again turned round, and rode up to the military party,
having heard the word "fire!" repeated.

"For mercy's sake, sir, don't fire, and I pledge you my soul the crowd
shall disperse."

"Ay!" cried O'Grady, "they won't obey the laws nor the magistrates; but
they'll listen fast enough to a d----d rebel like you."

"Liar and ruffian!" exclaimed Edward. "I'm a better and more loyal
subject than you, who provoke resistance to the laws you should make
honoured."

At the word "liar," O'Grady, now quite frenzied, attempted to seize a
musket from a soldier beside him; and had he succeeded in obtaining
possession of it, Edward O'Connor's days had been numbered; but the
soldier would not give up his firelock, and O'Grady, intent on immediate
vengeance, then rushed upon Edward, and seizing him by the leg,
attempted to unhorse him; but Edward was too firm in his seat for this,
and a struggle ensued.

The crowd, fearing Edward was about to fall a victim, raised a fierce
shout, and were about to advance, when the captain, with admirable
presence of mind, seized O'Grady, dragged him away from his hold, and
gave freedom to Edward, who instantly used it again to charge the
advancing line of the mob, and drive them back.

"Back, boys, back!" he cried, "don't give your enemies a triumph by
being disorderly. Disperse--retire into houses, let nothing tempt you
to riot--collect round your tally-rooms, and come up quietly to the
polling--and you will yet have a peaceful triumph."

The crowd, obeying, gave three cheers for "Ned-o'-the-Hill," and the
dense mass, which could not be awed, and dreaded not the engines of
war, melted away before the breath of peace.

As they retired on one side, the soldiers were ordered to their
quarters on the other, while their captain and Edward O'Connor stood in
the midst; but ere they separated, these two, with charity in their
souls, waved their hands towards each other in token of amity, and
parted, verily, in friendship.

CHAPTER XX

After the incidents just recorded, of course great confusion and
excitement existed, during which O'Grady was forced back into the
court-house in a state bordering on insanity. Inflamed as his furious
passions had been to the top of their bent, and his thirst of revenge
still remaining unslaked, foiled in all his movements, and flung back as
it were into the seething cauldron of his own hellish temper, he was a
p