As he grew older, Terence, being a son of one of the senior officers,
became a companion of the ensigns, and one or other of them generally
accompanied him on his fishing excursions, and were not unfrequently
participators in his escapades, several of which were directed against the
tranquillity of the inhabitants of Athlone. One night the bells of the
three churches had been rung simultaneously and violently, and the idea
that either the town was in flames, or that the French had landed, or that
the whole country was up in arms, brought all the inhabitants to their
doors in a state of violent excitement and scanty attire. No clew was ever
obtained as to the author of this outrage, nor was anyone able to discover
the origin of the rumour that circulated through the town, that a large
amount of gunpowder had been stored in some house or other in the
market-place, and that on a certain night half the town would be blown
into the air.

So circumstantial were the details that a deputation waited on Colonel
Corcoran, and a strong search-party was sent down to examine the cellars
of all the houses in the market-place and for some distance round. These
and some similar occurrences had much alarmed the good people of Athlone,
and it was certain that more than one person must have been concerned in
them.

"I have come, Colonel," Captain O'Connor said, when he called upon his
commanding officer, "to speak to you about Terence."

The colonel smiled grimly. "It is a comfort to think that we are going to
get rid of him, O'Connor; he is enough to demoralize a whole brigade, to
say nothing of a battalion, and the worst of it is he respects no one. I
am as convinced as can be that it was he who fastened that baste of a bird
in my shako the other day, and made me the laughing stock of the whole