Immediately after quitting his bed, he started on his tour of discovery, and finding his suspicion as to the author of the calumny against him not unfounded, at once determined on the course he should pursue.-Waiting until the following Sunday, he proceeded to the chapel at. the side of the country where Regan resided, which he knew to be the most likely place to meet him, and certainly the most public. For Regan, though a disorderly person, attended mass with punctuality: indeed, so strict is the observance of attendance at public worship on the part of the Irish peasantry, that the man must be very far gone in crime who disregards it. There was an additional reason too for Rory selecting the day and the place for his purpose; after the celebration of the mass, the congregation do not immediately disperse, but assemble round the building outside, forming a sort of social 'change,' where those who have not seen each other for the bygone week barter civilities, and the current gossip of the day is passed about.

To the chapel, therefore, Rory repaired on the Sunday after his meeting with the tinker, in company with three or four com. panions, whom he wished to be witnesses of his reproval of Regan for his unhandsome conduct towards him; and when the mass was ended, he and his friends sought about in the crowd, as they stood in detached groups over the road about the chapel, and at length he perceived Regan talking and laughing, the loudest of a noisy cluster of rollicking young fellows, who were cracking jokes on the old men, and saying half complimentary, halfimpudent things to the young women who passed by them.

Rory walked directly up to Regan; and there was so close a sympathy between Regan's conscience and Rory's look, that the former changed colour as the latter made a dead stand before him, and looked him straight in the face with the bright and open eye that bears evidence of an honest heart. There was a moment's silence; after which, Rory was the first to speak.

'Regan,' said he, 'you have not used me well-and you know it.'

'I know little of anything consarning you, and I wish to know less,' replied Regan, as he turned on his heel, and was going away; but Rory laid his hand upon him, and said firmly,

'Regan, that won't do! You've said things of me behind

backs, that I come to contradict before faces; and them that knows both of us is here to the fore, to judge between us.'

$ What are you

talkin' about, man?' said Regan, with a

swaggering air that but ill concealed his uneasiness.

.

You know well what I'm talkin' about,' answered Rory; and so does them that hears me. Was it good, Regan, to put an ugly turn on an innocent thrick at a fair, and say I stole your ducks-I--your owld playmate, and the son of dacent people, and that never disgraced them, nor never will, plaze God !'

And didn't you take them?' said Regan with savage effrontery.

'Ay, take,' said Rory: but, was take the word you used behind my back?'

'I'm not to pick my words for sitch as you,' said Regan, who began to recover the faint twinge of shame that abashed him at Rory's first appearance, and seemed now determined to brazen out the affair.

'Well, I neither pick, nor stale either,' said Rory; and whoever says to the conthrairy hasn't the truth in them. And here I have come this blessed day, and am afther bearin' the blessed mass; and it's not at this time, and in this place, I would lay the weight of a lie on my sowl; and yiz are all here round me and hears me, and let them deny me who can; and I say to your face, Regan, that what you've been givin' out on me is not the thruth. I wouldn't use a harder word to an owld friend—though we're cooler of late.'

'What do you mane by harder words?' said Regan with a menacing air.

'Don't look so angry, Regan. I didn't come here, this quiet and blessed day, to fight; I only kem to clear myself in the face o' the world; and having done that, I have no more to say, and so let me go my ways in pace and quietness.' And Rory was turning away, but Regan preverted him; and now all his bad passions gaining the ascendency, he said,

'If you mane, by "harder words," to say that you come here to give me the lie, it's what I won't let you or any man do, and if that's your plan, I can tell you I'll thrust your impudent words down your throat with my fist !' and he clenched his hand fiercely in Rory's face,

-Aegan, said Kory, commanding himself, 'I towld you I didn't

come here to fight, but to clear myself. Them that knows us both hears me clear myself, and that's enough for me.'

''Faith, you're like your sisther, my buck!' said Regan: 'both yiz will go jist half-ways with a man.'

'Regan!' exclaimed Rory, with an honest vehemence that forced him to hear him till he finished his sentence, 'the black dhrop is in you, or you wouldn't say an ill word of a dacent girl that never wronged you! She never liked you, Regan—and you know it. She never wint half-ways with you-and you know it and now to your teeth I tell you, you're a slandherous liar, and you know it!'

The word had hardly passed Rory's lips, when a tremendous blow from Regan was aimed at him, which Rory avoided by nimbly springing beyond its reach; and Regan left himself so open by his wild attack, that our hero put in a hit so well directed that his ruffianly foe was felled to the earth. He rose immediately, however, foaming with rage, and was rushing on Rory with tremendous fury, when the bystanders closed in between the combatants, and it was suggested by some that hostilities should proceed no further; while others proposed that if the men were bent on fighting, it would be best to adjourn to some adjacent field and strip for the encounter. Regan's friends were for the latter course; while the better-disposed endeavoured to dissuade Rory from exchanging any more blows. But Rory was highmettled he said they all could bear witness he strove as far as he could to prevent matters going to such extremities; but, as the case stood, he'd never let it be said that an O'More refused fight. 'I'd rather 'twas any day but Sunday, to be sure,' said Rory 'but I heer'd mass; so, having done my duty to God, I'm ready to do my duty to man-and in throth I'll do my best to plaze him,' said he, throwing off the upper part of his dress, lightly, and laughing. 'I've the good cause on my side, anyhow; so see fair play, boys, and let him do his worst.'

Great interest was excited by the approaching contest. Regan had the reputation of a bruiser, and was rather inclined to take advantage of it when he had to deal with those who permitted such a practice; and the report having gone abroad that he had been worsted by Rory in the trifling turn-up at the fair, gave rise to various opinions on the subject.

Let not this surprise the reader-it was an event amongst a

village population to those who are beyond the reach of more exciting objects, the fall of a favourite fighter is of as much importance as the fall of a minister.

The companions of Regan protested the impossibility of Rory's conquest over their champion, but for the chance of his being in liquor at the time; and the friends of Rory-that is to say, the bulk of the community-looked forward to the approaching fight with a degree of dread that there might be but too much truth in the assertion, and that Rory was about to lose his newly-acquired laurels, which they had been flourishing in the teeth of Regan's party with that sort of second-hand triumph people always indulge in when some 'cock of the walk' has been well plucked. They feared the moment was to come which should rob them of the opportunity of saying, 'Phoo! Regan indeed! Arrah, sure Rory O'More leathered him!'

I will not attempt to describe a woxing-match: it has been often better done than I could do it; and the better it has been done, the more I have always wished it had been left undone. The public have had enough of entertainment in that line; and I have sometimes thought that as in Cookery-books they give you a sort of diagram setting forth the various good things constituting a feast, you may lay down a plan, making a glorious set-out-or one should rather say, a set-to, to tickle the palate of a gourmand in the Fancy line. What a bill of fare might be produced with a little rubbing up of the memory! At a venture, here goes for a catalogue of items.

So much might content a glutton. Then if you want to be groggy, there's a

Bottleholder and
Claret.

What more need you wish ?-so, make out the fight to pleas yourself. Of the result, all need be said is, that Regan was

savage, and Rory, knowing the power of his adversary, cautious, This, and his activity, did wonders for him; and after some furious hitting from Regan, which Rory sometimes guarded and sometimes broke away beyond reach of, Regan began to breathe hard, of which our hero took advantage: the tide soon turned in his favour; and doubtless, the conscience of either of the combatants had no insignificant influence upon the fight. The ultimate consequence, however, was that Rory again triumphed over his malignant adversary; and a sullen silence on the part of a disappointed few, with a hearty shout from the exulting many, declared that Regan had given in, and Rory O'More was the victor.

CHAPTER XXIII.

CONTAINING DE LACY'S LETTER, -CONTRASTING THE CONDITIONS OF IRELAND AND ENGLAND.

'Look here upon this picture-and on this.'

THE glorious news to Britain of the victory of the 11th of October had now spread rejoicing over England, but caused aching to many a heart in Ireland. The Texel fleet was conquered, and its admiral a prisoner in England. No more chance of aid might be looked for from that quarter, and for a short time the hopes of the United Irishmen were blighted.

But in a few days other news arrived to temper the severity of this blow to their designs, and made them yet more confident of assistance from France.

Other triumphs than Duncan's filled the ear of Europe; for just now the rapid and brilliant succession of Bonaparte's victories in Italy more than outweighed the naval conquest of Duncan; and Austria saw, one after another, her experienced generals beaten by the young Corsican, and her veteran armie overwhelmed by the raw levies of impetuous France. The 18th of October witnessed the failure of the Bourbon plot in the assemblies of Paris; the Clichy Club was suppressed; Pichcgru and Carnot fled the republic again triumphed over the attempts