dear,--a rare place if you wish to prevent a man from speaking too
much: it sent him reeling to the other end of the room). 'Ruffian!'
says I. 'Dog!' says I. 'Insolent puppy and coxcomb! what do you
mean by laying your hand on me?'

"'Faith, Major, you giv him his BILLYFUL,' roared out a long Irish
unattached ensign, that I had treated with many a glass of Nantz at
the tavern. And so, indeed, I had; for the wretch could not speak
for some minutes, and all the officers stood laughing at him, as he
writhed and wriggled hideously.

"'Gentlemen, this is a monstrous scandal,' says one officer. 'Men
of rank and honour at fists like a parcel of carters!'

"'Men of honour!' says the Count, who had fetched up his breath by
this time. (I made for the door, but Macshane held me and said,
'Major, you are not going to shirk him, sure?' Whereupon I gripped
his hand and vowed I would have the dog's life.)

"'Men of honour!' says the Count. 'I tell you the man is a
deserter, a thief, and a swindler! He was my corporal, and ran away
with a thou--'

"'Dog, you lie!' I roared out, and made another cut at him with my
cane; but the gentlemen rushed between us.

"'O bluthanowns!' says honest Macshane, 'the lying scounthrel this
fellow is! Gentlemen, I swear be me honour that Captain Wood was
wounded at Barcelona; and that I saw him there; and that he and I
ran away together at the battle of Almanza, and bad luck to us.'