wen nor his father appeared that
day; the mustering of their faction was strong and powerful, but they,
whose wrongs were the cause of the gathering, never came forward to head
them.

This was an indignity not to be passed over in silence; and the murmurs,
at first low and subdued, grew louder and louder, until denunciations
heavy and deep fell upon the two who "wouldn't come out and right
themselves like men." The faction, discomfited and angered, soon broke
up; and returning homeward in their several directions, they left the
field to the enemy without even a blow. On the succeeding day, when the
observances of religion had taken place of the riotous and disorderly
proceedings of the fair, it was not customary for the younger men to
remain. The frequenters of the place were mostly women; the few of the
other sex were either old and feeble men, or such objects of compassion
as traded on the pious feelings of the votaries so opportunely evoked.
It was with great difficulty the worthy Priest of the parish had
succeeded in dividing the secular from the holy customs of the time,
and thus allowing the pilgrims, as all were called on that day, an
uninterrupted period for their devotions. He was firm and resolute,
however, in his purpose, and spared no pains to effect it: menacing
this one--persuading that; suiting the measure of his arguments to the
comprehension of each, he either cajoled or coerced, as the circumstance
might warrant. His first care was to remove all the temptations to
dissipation and excess; and for this purpose, he banished every show
and exhibition, and every tent where gambling and drinking went
forward;--his next, a more difficult task, was the exclusion of all
those doubtful characters, who, in every walk of life, are suggestive of
even more vice than they embody in themselves. These, however, abandoned
the place, of their own accord, so soon as they discovered how few were
the inducements to remain; until at length, by a tacit understanding, it
seemed arranged, that the day of penance and mortification should suffer
neither molestation nor interruption from those indisposed to partake
of its benefits. So rigid was the Priest in exacting compliance in this
matter, that he compelled the tents to be struck by daybreak, except
by those few, trusted and privileged individuals, whose ministerings to
human wants were permitted during the day of sanctity.

And thus the whole picture was suddenly changed. Th