edient of his own, or some new victim being discovered,
the attack would take another direction, and leave him once more at
liberty. I feel how sadly inadequate I am to render even the faintest
testimony to the talents of those, any one of whom, in after life, would
have been considered to have made the fortune of a dinner-party, and
who now were met together, not in the careless ease and lounging
indifference of relaxation, but in the open arena where wit met wit, and
where even the most brilliant talker, the happiest relater, the quickest
in sarcasm, and the readiest in reply, felt he had need of all his
weapons to defend and protect him. This was a _melee_ tournament, where
each man rode down his neighbour, with no other reason for attack than
detecting a rent in his armour. Even the Viceroy himself, who, as judge
of the lists, might be supposed to enjoy an immunity, was not safe here,
and many an arrow, apparently shot at an adversary, was sent quivering
into his corslet.

As I watched, with all the intense excitement of one to whom such a
display was perfectly new, I could not help feeling how fortunate it
was that the grave avocations and the venerable pursuits of the greater
number of the party should prevent this firework of wit from bursting
into the blaze of open animosity. I hinted as much to my neighbour,
O'Grady, who at once broke into a fit of laughter at my ignorance; and
I now learnt to my amazement that the Common Pleas had winged the
Exchequer, that the Attorney-General had pinked the Bolls, and, stranger
than all, that the Provost of the University himself had planted his man
in the Phoenix.

"It is just as well for us," continued he, in a whisper, "that the
churchmen can't go out; for the Dean, yonder, can snuff a candle at
twenty paces, and is rather a hot-tempered fellow to boot. But come,
now, his Grace is about to rise. We have a field-day to-morrow in the
Park, and break up somewhat earlier in consequence."

As it was now near two o'clock, I could see nothing to cavil at as
to the earliness of the hour, although, I freely confess, tired and
exhausted as I felt, I could not contemplate the moment of separation
without a sad foreboding that I ne'er should look upon the like again.
The party rose at this moment, and the Duke, shaking hands cordially
with each person as he passed down, wished us all a good night. I
followed with O'Grady and some others of the household, but when I
reached the ant