He  fought  stoutly  on  his  own  side;  but  he  was


264.  IRELAND

ped  then  for  the  same  basting  that  fell  to  me,
though  not  by  my  hands,  if  to  get  his  jaw  da-
cently  divided  into  three  halves  could  be  called
a  fair  liquidation  of  an  old  debt — it  was  equal
to  twenty  shillings  in  the  pound,  any  how.
"  There  had  not  been  a  larger  fair  in  the  town
of  Knockimdowney  for  years.  The  day  was
dark  and  sunless,  but  sultry.  On  looking
through  the  crowd,  I  could  see  no  man  without
a  cudgel;  yet,  what  was  strange,  there  was  no
certainty  of  any  sport.  Several  desultory  skrim-
mages  had  locality,  but  they  were  altogether
sequestered  from  the  great  factions  of  the  O's.
Except  that  it  was  pleasant,  and  stirred  one's
blood  to  look  at  them,  or  occasioned  the  cudgels
to  be  grasped  more  firmly,  there  was  no  personal
interest  felt  by  any  of  us  in  them ;  they  therefore
began  and  ended,  here  and  there,  through  the
fair,  like  mere  flashes  in  the  pan,  dying  in  their
own  smoke.
"  The  blood  of  every  prolific  nation  is  natu-
rally hot;  but  when  that  hot  blood  is  inflamed
by  ardent  spirits,  it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that
men  should  be  cool;  and,  God  he  knows,  there  is
not  on  the  level  surface  of  this  habitable  globe,
a  nation  that  has  been  so  thoroughly  inflamed  by
ardent  spirits  of  all  kinds  as  Ireland.
