Neil? Are you goin' to disgrace your name?"

"I won't fight him," replied he to whom they spoke, and the uncertainty
of his manner was taken for want of courage.

"Then," said Meehaul, "here, before witnesses, I give you the coward,
that you may carry the name to the last hour of your life."

He inflicted, when uttering the words, a blow with his open hand on Lamh
Laudher's cheek, after which he desired the spectators to bear witness
to what he had done. The whole crowd was mute with astonishment, not a
murmur more was heard; but they looked upon the two rival champions, and
then upon each other with amazement. The high-minded young man had but
one course to pursue. Let the consequence be what it might, he could
not think for a moment of compromising the character of Ellen, nor
of violating his promise, so solemnly given; with a flushed cheek,
therefore, and a brow redder even with shame than indignation, he left
the crowd without speaking' a word, for he feared that by indulging in
any further recrimination on the subject, his resolution might give way
under the impetuous resentment which he curbed in with such difficulty.

Meehaul Neil paused and looked after him, equally struck with surprise
and contempt at his apparent want of spirit.

"Well," he exclaimed to those who stood about him, "by the life within
me, if all the parish had sworn that Lamh Laudher Oge was a coward, I'd
not a b'lieved them!"

"Faix, Misther Neil, who would, no more, than yourself?" they replied;
"devil the likes of it ever we seen! The young fellow that no man could