often away, for months together, at Dublin."

"And what did you do with yourself?"

"I fished, shot, and rode. I had many friends among the gentry of
the neighbourhood, who would, doubtless, have shown less kindness
than they did, had it not been for the neglect with which
O'Carroll treated me. His unpopularity was all in my favour.

"However, I have one good reason for being obliged to him, since
it was through him that I obtained my commission. He told me that,
in his young days, he had been at a French college with the duke.
They had been great friends there, and he thought that, in memory
of this, de Noailles would procure me a commission."

"I suppose the real fact was, Kennedy, that he was glad to get rid
of you altogether?"

"I think that is likely enough. He certainly raised no objection,
whatever, to my going abroad, and seemed to think it natural that
I should choose the Irish Brigade, here, in preference to the
British service. He said something unpleasant about its not being
singular that I should be a rebel, when I always associated with
rebels, to which I replied that it seemed to me that I could
hardly be blamed for that, seeing that my father had been what he
called a rebel, and that I had little choice in the matter of my
associates; and that if I had been educated at a school in
England, instead of by good Father O'Leary, I might have had other
sentiments. He replied that my sentiments were nothing to him, one
way or the other. He was glad to wash his hands of me altogether;