to her, was unnatural; but he accounted for it as
his commander had done to Mr Ferris, by saying that he had received a
wound in his mouth. He described many strange places and scenes he had
visited, and appeared, notwithstanding the time he had been absent from
his native country, to be well acquainted with various parts of Ireland.
Altogether, he succeeded in making Norah think him an agreeable person,
although ill-favoured and rather rough in his manner. Captain Dupin was
equally successful in gaining the good opinion of Ellen, near whom he
sat; while he contrived at the same time to ingratiate himself, by his
lively conversation and the compliments he paid to Ireland, with most of
the guests--and all agreed that he was superior to most of the privateer
officers they had met.

The feast need not be described; the viands were in abundance, and
claret, followed by whisky punch, flowed freely. A watchful observer
would have discovered that neither of the officers drank more than they
could help, though they were compelled to take no small quantity, simply
in accepting the pledges they received in turn from the rest of the
guests. The usual Orange toasts were drunk--especially the chief one,
"The glorious and immortal memory!" the whole party standing, although
they did not, as was occasionally done, shiver their glasses on the
ground--the principal inhabitants of Waterford being great admirers of
William of Orange. Soon after this the ladies retired. The officers,
to the surprise of the other guests, rose to take their leave, and some
were inclined to insist on their stopping.

"It is altogether _contra bonos mores_, gentlemen, to leave us at this
hour with only half a cargo on board," exclaimed Mr Peter Vashan, one
of the sheriffs of the city; "we shall suspect you of being no true men.
Sit down and help us to finish another dozen of claret."

Similar expressions were uttered by others. Captain Dupin was firm,
even though he saw angry and contemptuous glances cast on them by some
of those whose rule of good fellowship he was about to infringe.

"To tell you the truth, gentlemen," he said, "I cannot be longer absent
with my chief officers from the ship. You know that privateersmen are
not the most orderly of characters; I am uncertain how my fellows may
behave during my absence, though I can answer for their good conduct
when I am among them. Before I left the ship I gave directions to have
a slight enterta