shop, that I had secured with a little douceur of usquebaugh; and
he outwitted, as was natural, the English lying valet, and gave us
notice, just in the nick, and I got ready for their reception; and,
Miss Nugent, I only wish you'd seen the excellent sport we had,
letting them follow the scent they got; and when they were sure of
their game, what did they find?--Ha! ha! ha!--dragged out, after a
world of labour, a heavy box of--a load of brick-bats; not an item
of my friend's plate, that was all snug in the coal-hole, where them
dunces never thought of looking for it--Ha! ha! ha!"

"But come, Terry," cried Lord Clonbrony, "I'll pull down your
pride.--How finely, another time, your job of the false ceiling
answered in the hall. I've heard that story, and have been told how
the sheriff's fellow thrust his bayonet up through your false plaster,
and down came tumbling the family plate--hey! Terry?--That hit cost
your friend, Lord Every-body-knows-who, more than your head's worth,
Terry."

"I ask your pardon, my lord, it never cost him a farthing."

"When he paid 7000_l._ for the plate, to redeem it?"

"Well! and did not I make up for that at the races of ----? The
creditors learned that my lord's horse, Naboclish, was to run at ----
races; and, as the sheriff's officer knew he dare not touch him on the
race-ground, what does he do, but he comes down early in the morning
on the mail-coach, and walks straight down to the livery stables.
He had an exact description of the stables, and the stall, and the
horse's body clothes.