being two jolly-boats in waiting to
receive them; and as it was dusk at the time, the scheme was undetected,
until the corporal of a flank company shouted out to them to wait for
him, that being his boat. At this time we had fifty men of our four
hundred and eighty.'

'Ay, ay, holy father,' cried the prior, as he helped himself to a
devilled bone, 'your fellows were like the grilled bone before me--when
they were mustered, they would not wait to be peppered?

This sally produced a roar of laughter, not the less hearty that the
grim-visaged hero it was addressed to never relaxed a muscle of his
face.

It was now late, and what between the noise, the wine, and the laughter,
my faculties were none of the clearest. Without having drunk much, I
felt all the intoxication of liquor, and a whirlwind of confusion in my
ideas, that almost resembled madness. To this state one part of their
proceedings in a great measure contributed; for every now and then, on
some signal from the prior, the whole party would take hands and dance
round the table to the measure of an Irish jig, wilder and even more
eccentric than their own orgies. Indeed, I think this religious exercise
finished me; for after the third time of its performance, the whole
scene became a confused and disturbed mass, and amid the crash of
voices, the ringing of laughter, the tramping of feet, I sank into
something which, if not sleep, was at least unconsciousness; and thus
is a wet sponge drawn over the immediately succeeding portion of my
history.

[Illustration: 224]

Some faint recollection I have of terrifying old Corny by my costume;
but what the circumstances, or how they happened, I cannot remember.
I can only call to mind one act in vindication of my wisdom--I went to
bed.

CHAPTER XVIII. A CONFIDENCE

I slept late on the morning after my introduction to the Monks of the
Screw, and probably should have continued to indulge still longer, had
not O'Grady awoke me.

'Come, Jack,' he cried, 'this is the third time I have been here to-day.
I can't have mercy on you any longer; so rub your eyes, and try if
you can't wake sufficiently to listen to me. I have just received my
appointment as captain in the Forty-first, with an order to repair
immediately to Chatham to join the regiment, which is under orders for
foreign service.'

'And when do you go, Phil?'

'To-night at eight o'clock. A private note from a friend at the Horse
Guards tells me not to