avoid the consequences attendant on a fair riot which had ended, "_ut
mos est_," in homicide, the ex-groom had fled the country, and, as it
was reported and believed, sought an asylum in the "land of the free"
beyond the Atlantic, which, privileged like the Cave of Abdullum,
conveniently flings her stripes and stars over all that are in debt
and all that are in danger. Little did the fugitive groom desire now
to recall "lang syne," and renew a former acquaintance. But my father
was otherwise determined; and stepping carelessly up, he tapped his
old domestic on the shoulder, and at once addressed him by name.

The ostler turned deadly pale, but in a moment the Colonel dispelled
his alarm.

"You have nothing to apprehend from me, Pat. He who struck the blow,
which was generally laid to your charge, confessed when dying that
he was the guilty man, and that you were innocent of all blame beyond
mixing in the affray."

Down popped the suspected culprit on his knees, and in a low but
earnest voice he returned thanks to heaven.

"I understood you had gone to America, or I would have endeavored in
some way to have apprised you, that a murderer by report, you were but
a rioter in reality."

"I did go there. Colonel, but I could not rest. I knew that I was
innocent: but who would believe my oath? I might have done well enough
there; but I don't know why, the ould country was always at my heart,
and I used to cry when I thought of the mornings that I whipped in the
hounds, and the nights that I danced merrily in the servants' hall,