h to establish a charge of misdemeanor against my father; and
he was accordingly committed for trial at the approaching assizes,
while I was delivered over to the charge of a police-sergeant, to be in
readiness when my testimony should be required.

The downfall of a dynasty is sure to evoke severe recrimination against
the late ruler; and now my parent, who but a few days past could have
tilted the beam of justice at his mere pleasure, was overwhelmed with
not merely abuse and attack, but several weighty accusations of crime
were alleged against him. Not only was it discovered that he interfered
with the due course of justice, but that he was a prime actor in, and
contriver of, many of the scenes of insurrectionary disturbance which
for years back had filled the country with alarm and the jails with
criminals.

For one of these cases, a night attack for arms, the evidence was so
complete and unquestionable that the Crown prosecutor, disliking the
exhibition of a son giving evidence against his parent, dispensed with
my attendance altogether, and prosecuting the graver charge obtained a
verdict of guilty.

The sentence was transportation for life, with a confiscation of all
property to the Crown. Thus my first step in life was to exile my
father, and leave myself a beggar,--a promising beginning, it must be
owned!

CHAPTER III. A FIRST STEP ON LIFE'S LADDER

It is amouung the strange and singular anomalies of our nature that
however pleased men may be at the conviction of a noted offender, few
of those instrumental to his punishment are held in honor and esteem.
If all Kilbeggan rejoiced, as they did, at my father's downfall, a very
considerable share of obloquy rested on me,--a species of judgment, I
honestly confess, that I was not the least prepared for.

"There goes the little informer," said they, as I passed; "what did ye
get for hanging--" a very admirable piece of Irish exaggeration--"for
hanging yer father, Con?" said one.

"Could n't ye help yer stepmother to a say voyage?" shouted another.

"And then we 'd be rid of yez all," chimed in a third.

"He's rich now," whined out an old beggar-man that often had eaten his
potatoes at our fireside. "He's rich now, the chap is; he 'll marry a
lady!"

This was the hardest to bear of all the slights, for not alone had I
lost all pretension to my father's property, but the raggedness of my
clothes and the general misery of my appearance might have saved m