love for it. Faction fights, involving the people of the whole
barony, arising from some drunken brawl, are common enough; while
among the better class duels are common and, for the most part,
are the result of some foolish quarrel between two men heated by
wine. Besides, even putting that aside, I should have given up the
habit. When I joined the regiment, I was anxious to become a good
swordsman, but if one's head is overheated at night, one's hand
would be unsteady and one's nerves shaken in the morning.

"Possibly," he added, with a smile, "it is this, quite as much as
the hotness of their temper, that prevents the best teachers from
caring to undertake the tuition of the officers of the Brigade."

"Possibly," Phelim laughed, "though I never thought of it before.
There is no doubt that the French, who, whatever their faults be,
are far less given to exceeding a fair allowance of wine than are
our countrymen, would come to their morning lessons in the saloon
in a better condition to profit by the advice of the master than
many of our men."

"I don't think," Patrick O'Neil said, "that we Irishmen drink from
any particular love of liquor, but from good fellowship and
joviality. One can hardly imagine a party of French nobles
inflaming themselves with wine, and singing, as our fellows do.
Frenchmen are gay in what I may call a feeble way--there is no go
in it. There is no spirit in their songs, there is no real
heartiness in their joviality, and the idea of one man playing a
practical joke upon another, the latter taking it in good part,
could never enter their heads, for they are ready to take offence
at the merest trifle.