ress Mike's oratory or music were perfectly
unavailing. In fact, he had pledged my health so many times during the day;
he had drunk so many toasts to the success of the British arms, so many to
the English nation, so many in honor of Ireland, and so many in honor of
Mickey Free himself,--that all respect for my authority was lost in his
enthusiasm for my greatness, and his shouts became wilder, and the blasts
from the trumpet more fearful and incoherent; and finally, on the last
stage of our journey, having exhausted as it were every tribute of his
lungs, he seemed (if I were to judge by the evidence of my ears) to be
performing something very like a hornpipe on the roof of the chaise.

Happily for me there is a limit to all human efforts, and even _his_ powers
at length succumbed; so that, when we arrived at Bristol, I persuaded him
to go to bed, and I once more was left to the enjoyment of some quiet. To
fill up the few hours which intervened before bedtime, I strolled into the
coffee room. The English look of every one, and everything around, had
still its charm for me; and I contemplated, with no small admiration, that
air of neatness and propriety so observant from the bright-faced clock that
ticked unwearily upon the mantelpiece, to the trim waiter himself, with
noiseless step and a mixed look of vigilance and vacancy. The perfect
stillness struck me, save when a deep voice called for "another
brandy-and-water," and some more modestly-toned request would utter a
desire for "more cream." The attention of each man, absorbed in the folds
of his voluminous newspaper, scarcely deigning a glance at the new-comer
who entered, was in keeping with the general surroundings,--giving, in
their solemnity and gravity, a character of almost religious seriousness,
to what, in any other land, would be a scene of riotous and discordant
tumult. I was watching all this with a more than common interest, when the
door opened, and the waiter entered with a large placard. He was followed
by another with a ladder, by whose assistance he succeeded in attaching the
large square of paper to the wall above the fireplace. Every one about rose
up, curious to ascertain what was going forward; and I myself joined in the
crowd around the fire. The first glance of the announcement showed me
what it meant; and it was with a strange mixture of shame and confusion I
read:--

"_Fall of Ciudad Rodrigo: with a full and detailed account of the
st